The length of coastlines in Ptolemy's <i>Geography</i> and in ancient <i>periploi</i>

Shcheglov, Dmitry A.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/hgss-9-9-2018

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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The configuration of the Pontus Euxinus in Ptolemy's Geography

Dmitry A. Shcheglov

Hist. Geo Space. Sci., 11, 31–51, https://doi.org/10.5194/hgss-11-31-2020,https://doi.org/10.5194/hgss-11-31-2020, 2020

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.