ThePeriplus of Pseudo-Scylax is anancient Greekperiplus (περίπλουςperíplous, 'circumnavigation') describing the sea route around theMediterranean andBlack Sea. It probably dates from the mid-4th century BC, specifically the 330s, and was probably written at or near Athens. Its author is often included among the ranks of 'minor' Greek geographers. There is only one manuscript available, which postdates the original work by over 1500 years.

The author's name is writtenPseudo-Scylax orPseudo-Skylax, often abbreviated as Ps.-Scylax or Ps.-Skylax.

The only extant, medieval manuscript names the author as "Scylax"' (or "Skylax"), but scholars have proven that this attribution is to be treated as a so-called "pseudepigraphical appeal to authority":Herodotus mentions aScylax of Caryanda, a Greek navigator who in the late sixth century BC explored the coast of theIndian Ocean on behalf of thePersians.^[1] Many details in the work, however, reflect fourth-century BC knowledge of the world; since it cannot be by the sixth-century Scylax, its author is habitually referred to as Pseudo-Scylax.

There remains one primary manuscript, Parisinus suppl. gr. (Supplément grec) 443 (also known as the Pithou MS after its 16th-century owner,Pierre Pithou); it dates to the thirteenth century AD and is the original of those upon which the first printed edition of 1600 was based. Two later copies of this manuscript, which is notoriously corrupt, add nothing of substance. The principal manuscript was inaccessible to scholars for over two centuries until the 1830s, when it was bought by theBibliothèque Nationale of France.

The narrative attributed to this "Pseudo-Scylax" simulates a clockwise circumnavigation of theMediterranean andBlack Sea, starting inIberia and ending in WestAfrica, beyond thePillars of Hercules, that mark theStraits of Gibraltar.

The NW African section is sometimes claimed to have been derived from the earlierPeriplus ofHanno the Navigator, but a close comparison makes the differences between the two texts apparent. Rather than the record of a voyage likeHanno's, or a compilation of eye-witness accounts of voyages, thePeriplus of Pseudo-Scylax is probably an attempt at a quasi-scientific geographical account of the parts of the world accessible to Greeks in the 4th century BC. It can plausibly be associated with philosophical and scientific activities atAthens underPlato's successors in theAcademy; the author was perhaps directly in contact with Plato's successors and withAristotle andTheophrastos, in the years leading up to the foundation of Aristotle's school, thePeripatos or Lyceum. One of the aims of the work seems to be to calculate a total sailing length for the coasts of the Mediterranean and Black Sea, a geographical undertaking in which Aristotle's pupilDikaiarchos of Messana went further, perhaps explicitly building upon the work of our unknown author.

ThePeriplus of Scylax, along with other minor ancient Greek geographers, was first published inAugsburg in 1600 byDavid Hoeschel. InAmsterdam, thePeriplus was published byGerardus Vossius in 1639 and then byJohn Hudson in hisGeographi Graeci Minores. InParis, thePeriplus was published in 1826 byJean François Gail and inBerlin it was published in 1831 byRudolf Heinrich Klausen.

The Greek texts ofKarl Müller (1855) and B. Fabricius (pseudonym ofHeinrich Theodor Dittrich, 2nd edition 1878) have been superseded by P. CounillonPseudo-Skylax: le périple du Pont-Euxin: texte, traduction, commentaire philologique et historique. (Bordeaux, 2004) and G. Shipley,Pseudo-Scylax's Periplus: Text, Translation, and Commentary (Exeter, 2011).

• The manuscript
• Wikisource - The original Greek text, based on Müller, Paris 1855–61 – Περίπλους τῆς θαλάσσης τῆς οἰκουμένης Εὐρώπης καὶ Ἀσίας καὶ Λιβύης
• English translation by Brady Kiesling from the 1878 Greek edition of B. Fabricius.
• Geographica antiqua,Johann Friedrich Gronovius (ed.), Lugduni Batavorum, apud Jordanum Luchtmans, 1697,pp. 1–132.
• Geographi graeci minores,Karl Müller, Paris, editoribus Firmin-Didot et sociis, 1882,vol. 1 pp. 15–96.
• Hecataei Milesii fragmenta. Scylacis caryandensis periplus,Rudolf Heinrich Klausen (ed.), Berolini, impensis G. Reimeri, 1831,pp. 1–132.
• Fragments des poemes géographiques de Scymnus de Chio et du faux Dicéarque, M. Letronne (ed.), Paris, Librairie de Gide, 1840
• Anonymi vulgo Scylacis Caryandensis periplum maris interni, B. Fabricius (pseudonym ofH. T. Dittrich), Lipsiae, typis et sumtibus B. G. Teubneri, 1878.

• Patrick Counillon,Pseudo-Skylax, Le Périple du Pont-Euxin (Bordeaux, 2004).
• Graham Shipley,Pseudo-Skylax's Periplous: The Circumnavigation of the Inhabited World. Text, Translation and Commentary (Exeter: Bristol Phoenix Press/The Exeter Press), 2011.ISBN 978-1-904675-82-2 hardback, 978-1-904675-83-9 paperback. For details seehttp://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=11&AS1=shipley
• D. Graham J. Shipley, ‘Pseudo-Skylax and the natural philosophers’,Journal of Hellenic Studies, vol. 132 (2012). Pre-print published in FirstView by Cambridge University Press on 6 Sept. 2012.doi:10.1017/S0075426912000092
• Galling, Kurt (1938)."Die syrisch-palästinische Küste nach der Beschreibung bei Pseudo-Skylax".Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins.61 (1/2). Deutscher Verein zur Erforschung Palästinas:66–96.ISSN 2192-3124.JSTOR 27930190.
• Elayi, Josette (1982)."Studies in Phoenician Geography during the Persian Period".Journal of Near Eastern Studies.41 (2). University of Chicago Press:83–110.ISSN 0022-2968.JSTOR 544660.
• Lipiński, E. (2004).Itineraria Phoenicia. Orientalia Lovaniensia analecta. Uitgeverij Peeters en Departement Oosterse Studies. p. 273.ISBN 978-90-429-1344-8.
• Shipley, G. (2011).Pseudo-Skylax's Periplous: The Circumnavigation of the Inhabited World : Text, Translation and Commentary. Liverpool University Press Series. Bristol Phoenix Press. p. 180.ISBN 978-1-904675-82-2.