![]() ![]() In particular, these findings suggest a simple explanation for the strange shape of the Caspian Sea in Ptolemy's Geography.Ībstract. Second, in several cases this compression is compensated by a proportional stretching of the adjacent east–west coastal segments. First, the north–south stretches of the coast that were tied to particular latitudes are shown compressed relative to the distances recorded in other sources in roughly the same proportion to which Ptolemy's circumference of the Earth is underestimated relative to the true value. ![]() It is argued that this error resulted in two interrelated distortions of the coastal outlines in Ptolemy's Geography. ![]() Additionally, a possible impact of Ptolemy's erroneous estimate of the circumference of the Earth is investigated. 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. 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 " voyages around or circumnavigations ", a genre of ancient geographical literature describing coastal itineraries). ![]()
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