Abstract
Abstract The conquests of Alexander the Great and his successors reconfigured the political geography of the Mediterranean and Near East. But what was the impact of these transformations upon intellectual geographies? This chapter traces changes in Greek knowledge and perceptions of the East in the early Hellenistic period, using as a case study Aristotle’s Historia Animalium and Theophrastus’ Historia Plantarum —works similar in scope but written at different stages of this transitional period. By comparing the geographical range of place names it is possible to map an increase in knowledge of eastern regions between Aristotle’s work and that of Theophrastus. There is also a conceptual shift, reflecting intensified contacts between the Mediterranean and Near East: eastern areas which in the Historia Animalium are vaguely localized and highly alien appear in the Historia Plantarum as increasingly well-defined territories, comparable to and connected with the rest of the oikoumenē.
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