REGIO, CHŌRA, REGION

Abstract

In this paper, I argue that the main legacy of the geography of Augustan Italy is the very construction of the concept of region. The nature of region which I delineate is based on the dialectics between the ethics of regula, proper to regio, and the ethics of action/movement/change, proper to chōra. Regio and chōra are the two identities of region
emerging respectively from Pliny’s and Strabo’s description of Italy. I aim to explain why region, qua being, in my view, both regio and chōra, is the model of any other cultural «cutout» in the continuum of sense.