ローマ帝政前期における「世界」の叙述とその特質 : ポンポニウス・メラ著『地誌』の構想について

This study analyzes how Pomponius Mela, the author of the oldest existing Latin geographic description, viewed his contemporary world. First, what characteristics did Mela’s worldview display during the transformation from Greek-Hellenistic to Roman geography? I reconsider the recently proposed theory by R. Batty that the Mela’s De chorographia should be understood as ‘Phoenician geography’, not as Roman geography. Focusing on the counterclockwise worldview adopted by Mela, which was clearly influenced by the counter-clockwise currents of the Mediterranean and can possibly be considered as Phoenician, it is rather difficult to consider Mela’s world as ‘Phoenician geography’ only, given the inconsistency of the descriptive order within the work. Second, how did contemporary situations in ancient western Eurasia reflect within Mela’s narrative conception? Focusing on the ‘Indi’ (Indians) in Germania whom Mela refers to in his work, I tried to clarify the linkage between Mela’s worldview and the great structural transformation of the politics in ancient western Eurasia during his time. I found a strong reflection of Greek-Hellenistic geographical thought in Mela’s worldview. Mela must have considered the Caspian Sea as the gulf of Oceanus because the Greeks did and thought that the ‘Indi’ navigated to Germania through the Caspian Bay as part of Oceanus. In summary, Mela’s De chorographia should be viewed as ‘Roman geography’ that is a mixture of Greek-Hellenistic and Phoenician geographies.