History of Geo- and Space Sciences
History of Geo- and Space Sciences
History of Geo- and Space Sciences
Articles | Volume 9, issue 1
Articles | Volume 9, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/hgss-9-9-2018
© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/hgss-9-9-2018
© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Articles | Volume 9, issue 1
01 Feb 2018
 | 01 Feb 2018

The length of coastlines in Ptolemy's Geography and in ancient periploi

Dmitry A. Shcheglov

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Short summary
The lengths of the coastlines in Ptolemy's Geography are compared with the corresponding values transmitted by other ancient sources, presumably based on some lost periploi (literally "circumnavigations", a genre of ancient geographical literature describing coastal itineraries). The comparison reveals a remarkable agreement between them, suggesting that Ptolemy relied much more heavily on these or similar periploi than it used to be thought.
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