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17-612: The form of the periplus is at least as old as the earliest Greek historian, the Ionian Hecataeus of Miletus . The works of Herodotus and Thucydides contain passages that appear to have been based on peripli . Periplus is the Latinization of the Greek word περίπλους ( periplous , contracted from περίπλοος periploos ), which is "a sailing-around." Both segments, peri- and -plous , were independently productive :

34-614: A god. Historian James Shotwell has called this encounter with the antiquity of Egypt an influence on Hecataeus's scepticism: he recognized that oral history is untrustworthy. Besides his written works, Hecataeus is also credited with improving the map of Anaximander , which he saw as a disc encircled by Oceanus . He was probably the first of the logographers to attempt a serious prose history and to employ critical method to distinguish myth from historical fact, though he accepts Homer and other poets as trustworthy authorities. Herodotus, though he contradicts his statements at least once,

51-407: A high position, and devoted his time to the composition of geographical and historical works. When Aristagoras , acting tyrant of Miletus, held a council of leading Ionians at Miletus to organize a revolt against Persian rule, Hecataeus tried in vain to dissuade his countrymen from the undertaking. In 494 BC, when the defeated Ionians were obliged to sue for terms, he was one of the ambassadors to

68-473: A more skeptical approach to the traditions of families who claimed to be descended from gods. One fragment that has survived is the opening "Hecataeus of Miletus thus speaks: I write what I deem true; for the stories of the Greeks are manifold and seem to me ridiculous." Herodotus (II, 143) tells a story of a visit by Hecataeus to an Egyptian temple at Thebes . It recounts how the priests showed Hecataeus

85-498: A series of statues in the temple's inner sanctum, each one supposedly set up by the high priest of each generation. Hecataeus, says Herodotus, had seen the same spectacle, after mentioning that he traced his descent, through sixteen generations, from a god. The Egyptians compared his genealogy to their own, as recorded by the statues; since the generations of their high priests had numbered three hundred and forty-five, all mortal men, they refused to believe Hecataeus's claim of descent from

102-469: Is a vast work, with sometimes hundreds of list entries under each letter of the greek alphabet: Α – Ω . Even as an epitome, the Ethnica is of enormous value for geographical, mythological , and religious information about ancient Greece . Nearly every article in the epitome contains a reference to some ancient writer, as an authority for the name of the place. From the surviving fragments, we see that

119-422: Is indebted to Hecataeus for the concept of a prose history. Stephanus of Byzantium Stephanus or Stephen of Byzantium ( Latin : Stephanus Byzantinus ; ‹See Tfd› Greek : Στέφανος Βυζάντιος , Stéphanos Byzántios ; fl.  6th century   AD) was a Byzantine grammarian and the author of an important geographical dictionary entitled Ethnica ( Ἐθνικά ). Only meagre fragments of

136-643: The Persian satrap Artaphernes , whom he persuaded to restore the constitution of the Ionic cities. Hecataeus is the first known Greek historian and was one of the first classical writers to mention the Celtic and Illyrian peoples. He is known as the "Father of Geography". Two works by Hecateus are known: Περίοδος γῆς ( Periodos ges , "Journey round the Earth" or "World Survey") and Γενεαλογίαι ( Genealogiai ) or

153-564: The ancient Greek speaker understood the word in its literal sense; however, it developed a few specialized meanings, one of which became a standard term in the ancient navigation of Phoenicians , Greeks , and Romans . Several examples of peripli that are known to scholars: Persian sailors had long had their own sailing guide books, called Rahnāmag in Middle Persian ( Rahnāmeh رهنامه in Modern Persian ). They listed

170-464: The dictionary survive, but the epitome is extant, compiled by one Hermolaus , not otherwise identified. Nothing is known about the life of Stephanus, except that he was a Greek grammarian who was active in Constantinople , and lived after the time of Arcadius and Honorius , and before that of Justinian II . Later writers provide no information about him, but they do note that the work

187-730: The latter includes a passage from the comic poet Alexis on the Seven Largest Islands . Another respectable fragment, from the article Δύμη to the end of Δ , exists in a manuscript of the Fonds Coislin , the library formed by Pierre Séguier . The first modern printed edition of the work was published by the Aldine Press in Venice in 1502. The complete standard edition is still that of August Meineke (1849, reprinted at Graz, 1958), and by convention, references to

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204-664: The original contained considerable quotations from ancient authors, besides many interesting particulars, topographical, historical, mythological, and others. Stephanus cites Artemidorus , Polybius , Aelius Herodianus , Herodotus , Thucydides , Xenophon , Strabo and other writers. He is the only writer to cite a lost work attributed to Sophaenetus . The chief fragments remaining of the original work are preserved by Constantine Porphyrogennetos in De Administrando Imperio , ch. 23 (the article Ίβηρίαι δύο ) and De thematibus , ii. 10 (an account of Sicily );

221-509: The people and places that would be encountered on a coastal voyage between these points, as well as the inhabitants of the various Mediterranean islands , the Scythians , Persia , India , Egypt and Nubia . Over 300 fragments of this work are preserved, mostly as citations for place names in the work of Stephanus of Byzantium . Hecataeus's other work was a book on mythography in four books. Less than forty fragments remain. He applied

238-478: The ports and coastal landmarks and distances along the shores. The lost but much-cited sailing directions go back at least to the 12th century. Some described the Indian Ocean as "a hard sea to get out of" and warned of the "circumambient sea," with all return impossible. A periplus was also an ancient naval maneuver in which attacking triremes would outflank or encircle the defenders to attack them in

255-622: The rear. Hecataeus of Miletus Hecataeus of Miletus ( / ˌ h ɛ k ə ˈ t iː ə s / ; Greek : Ἑκαταῖος ὁ Μιλήσιος ; c. 550 – c. 476 BC), son of Hegesander, was an early Greek historian and geographer . Hailing from a very wealthy family, he lived in Miletus , then under Persian rule in the satrapy of Lydia . He was active during the time of the Greco-Persian Wars . After having travelled extensively, he settled in his native city, where he occupied

272-601: The Ἱστορία ( Historia ). However, they only survive in fragments. Periodos ges was written in two books, the first on Europe, the second on Asia, in which he included Africa. The book is a comprehensive work on geography beginning at the Straits of Gibraltar and going clockwise ending at the Atlantic coast of Morocco following the coast of the Mediterranean and Black Sea . Hecataeaus provides information about

289-576: Was later reduced to an epitome by a certain Hermolaus, who dedicated his epitome to Justinian; whether the first or second emperor of that name is meant is disputed, but it seems probable that Stephanus flourished in Byzantium in the earlier part of the sixth century AD, under Justinian I . Stephanos' work, originally written in Greek , takes the form of an alphabetical dictionary or encyclopedia of geographical toponymns , ethnonymns etc. It

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