Of paths and places: the origin of Ptolemy's \textit{Geography} (Q680590)

Based on the errors found in Ptolemy's \textit{Geography} the authors trace the source of the data used for its composition. It turns out that Ptolemy used only a few astronomical latitudes (and those were taken without verifying them from the literature) to determine the main localities. ``Starting with just a few latitudes of localities, such as those of Alexandria, Rhodes, Byzantium, the mouth of the River Borysthenes and Carthage, as well as even less information on the longitudes, sea distances were used to construct a map on a graticule of Ptolemy's second method of map-making. As creating a map using this easy-to-use method allowed him to work out distances with a ruler and compass, and since sea distances provided him with roughly direct routes, Ptolemy was able to keep the errors made in determining these large distances to a minimum.''