曼德海峡与古希腊罗马地理知识的传承

Bab-el-Mandab and the Transmission of Geographical Knowledge in Ancient Greco-Roman Period

自亚历山大时代起,古希腊罗马人开始探索曼德海峡及周边地区。希腊化时代及罗马帝国初期,随着军事活动、捕猎战象、商业贸易的展开,人们对该地区的了解越来越深入。地理知识的积累为古典作家的创作打下了基础。他们不但认识到曼德海峡的存在,而且对海峡的宽度、海峡中的岛屿、海峡南北半岛的位置等地形地貌进行详细描述。然而,古典作家的记载与事实本身存在程度不同的偏差。对曼德海峡记述的不准确与古代希腊罗马人的知识结构有关。相较于源自水手和商人的一手材料,古典作家更信任以官方文献为代表的二手材料或依据官方材料编撰的权威著作。到帝国时代,整理校对前辈先贤的研究,重复权威的观点成为罗马地理学家的全部成果。

Ever since the time of Alexander, the ancient Greco-Romans began to explore Bab-el-Mandab and its surrounding area. With the development of military activities, war elephant capture and maritime trade, more and more were known. The accumulation of geographical knowledge about this area provided the materials for classical scholars. They not only realized the existence of the strait, but also detailedly described its width, the islands in the strait and the Location of the north and south peninsulas. However, there were different degrees of deviation between the records of classical scholars and the facts themselves. The inaccuracy of their cognition had something to do with their structure of knowledge. Rather than the first-hand materials from sailors and merchants, the classical scholars invoked second-hand evidences derived from official documents or viewed from the pundits. During the period of Roman Empire, collation of the predecessors’ works and repetition of their views made up all the research fruits of Roman geographical scholars.