Libya in Classical Travel Accounts and the Construction of Geographical and Historical Knowledge and Cultural Interaction in Mediterranean Thought

Abstract

This study examines classical travel and geographical writings as a key source for reconstructing Libya’s image in the Roman and Byzantine periods, moving beyond purely descriptive readings. It addresses whether these accounts reflect empirical realities or instead reproduce imperial and symbolic frameworks that served Roman and Byzantine power, while also considering the limits of reciprocal interaction between travelers and local communities. Methodologically, the article adopts a critical, comparative historical approach that combines close textual analysis of major classical authors with discourse analysis, and it draws on archaeological and topographical evidence where available. The study argues that Libya occupied a dynamic position in Mediterranean intellectual geography as a space of knowledge production and cultural exchange shaped by ports, inland routes, and desert networks. It concludes that rereading these narratives through multiple perspectives challenges inherited clichés and helps restore Libya’s active role in the formation of Mediterranean geographical and historical imagination, contributing to broader debates on travel, knowledge, and authority in antiquity.