The Periplous of Pseudo-Scylax, a description of Mediterranean and Black Sea coastal lands and islands, is known to a minority of Classicists and read by fewer still. This fourth-century b.c. text, mistakenly handed down to us by the manuscript tradition under the name of the fifth-century b.c. Scylax of Caryanda, is one of the earliest texts counted among the so-called Minor Greek Geographers. It was edited in full by B. Fabricius in 1848 (with a second edition in 1878) and by K. Müller in his first volume of Geographi Graeci minores (1855), and has more recently been commentated on and translated partly into French by P. Counillon (2004) and fully into Spanish by J. Garzón Díaz (2008). S.'s edition is thus not only the first complete English translation of the work but also the first complete edition in over a hundred years, incorporating many scholarly insights gained since the still standard edition of Müller.

One of the stated goals of this edition, besides establishing a more reliable text and commentary, is to introduce the text to a readership of non-specialists, which S. accomplishes through a short yet comprehensive introduction and an in-depth but accessible commentary. Refining the communis opinio holding that the Periplous dates from the fourth century, S. demonstrates that this work must have been produced before 337 since it shows no awareness of expanding Greek horizons following Alexander's conquests. S. is rightfully more cautious in deducing the author's ethnicity from the text: although the Periplous describes the Mediterranean from an Athenian point of view, the author is just as likely to have been a foreigner active in Athenian intellectual circles as an Athenian. S. diverges more strongly from the scholarly consensus in his re-evaluation of the text's purpose and intellectual context, by arguing that the Periplous is not a practical guide for sailors or merchants since distances are not given in a systematic manner and other navigational indications are often lacking. It is rather a work with an academic agenda, echoing an interest in data collecting present in contemporary Athenian philosophical circles and exemplified by the works of Speusippus, Aristotle and Theophrastus. This reframing of the work helps explain the author's varied interests, which generally boil down to forms of cataloguing, be it of cities, peoples or elements of geographical or historical interest. S. furthermore points out ideological similarities between ps.-Scylax's geographical work and that of Strabo in so far as both authors lived at a time when Greeks or Romans were projecting power on a large scale, and both geographical surveys reveal a world subjected or at least mastered by each author's political centre. This is a tantalising analysis but deserves a much longer and more nuanced treatment than S. provides.

Literary scholars are now turning their attention to texts previously deemed purely technical or sub-literary, and to judge from S.'s brief remarks on the Periplous' literary qualities and its place in ancient literature, this is a text that would benefit from some serious literary criticism. S. makes two somewhat controversial claims: that we should see ps.-Scylax's frequent use of the first person as a literary device to engage readers rather than a claim to authority, and that we should resist classifying this text and other Classical geographical texts as belonging to a common periplographic genre, which did not exist before the Hellenistic era, if ever. This latter assertion may be strictly true, but sidesteps the important issues of the use of models and of readers' expectations in reading geographical information, which provided a framework for ps.-Scylax to work with.

S.'s edition presents the Greek text and English translation separately, with a limited apparatus criticus relegated to the end of the book. This will make it easy for casual readers to run through the English text but will be a hindrance to those wishing to engage with the Greek text more directly. The adoption of Müller's section numbers, supplemented by S.'s own sub-section numbers, helps the reader navigate the text and brings out significant elements. The revised Greek text stays intentionally close to the surviving Byzantine manuscripts and introduces few emendations, S. preferring to retain inconsistencies and occasional mistakes rather than to risk introducing elements not present in the original, irretrievable text.

The extensive commentary offers a wealth of geographical, ethnographical and historical information on the locales mentioned in the Periplous, as well as philological considerations and issues of textual criticism. Copious references to ancient sources and modern scholarship help provide a full historical understanding of the places described by ps.-Scylax as well as their treatment by other authors. S. strikes a happy balance between introductory remarks and depth of coverage, providing readers with a solid overview of the issues involved while directing them to an up-to-date bibliography for further discussions. In some instances the commentary would have benefited from elaborating on some issues instead of simply referring to previous scholarship, for example regarding ps.-Scylax's definition of Hellas (p. 114), a topic central to the Periplous' outlook, but these cases are few and far between. Several maps accompanying the commentary provide another level of contextualisation by pinpointing locales mentioned in the text on a modern projection. S. does not attempt to draw a map illustrating ps.-Scylax's worldview and this is for the best given the subjective nature of such reconstructions.

This edition is the first volume published as part of the Selected Greek Geographers project, a collaborative effort spearheaded by S. to produce new editions and English translations of lesser-known Greek geographical texts. Through the scholarly weight of his commentary and his clear presentation of the text and its issues, S. has succeeded in making the Periplous accessible and relevant, while setting the bar high for future editions of ancient geographers. The Periplous repays close inspection and S.'s masterly new edition makes the text available to classicists and historians interested in Mediterranean geography and in intellectual pursuits in the late Greek classical era.