periplus
Sign in to savethumb|Beginning of the Periplus of the Euxine Sea|Periplous tou Euxeinou Pontou by Arrian of Nicomedia, [[Johann Froben and Nicolaus Episcopius, Basel 1533]] A periplus (), or periplous, is a manuscript document that lists the ports and coastal landmarks, in order and with approximate intervening distances, that the captain of a vessel could expect to find along a shore. In that sense, the periplus was a type of log, the nautical counterpart of the later Roman itinerarium of road stops. However, the Greek navigators added various notes, which, if they were professional geographers, as many wer
~6 min read
Article
11 sectionsContents
- Variant
- Etymology
- Known ''peripli''
- Carthaginian
- Greek
- ''Rahnāmag''
- Tactic of naval combat
- See also
- References
- Bibliography
- External links
thumb|Beginning of the Periplus of the Euxine Sea|Periplous tou Euxeinou Pontou by Arrian of Nicomedia, [[Johann Froben and Nicolaus Episcopius, Basel 1533]] A periplus (), or periplous, is a manuscript document that lists the ports and coastal landmarks, in order and with approximate intervening distances, that the captain of a vessel could expect to find along a shore. In that sense, the periplus was a type of log, the nautical counterpart of the later Roman itinerarium of road stops. However, the Greek navigators added various notes, which, if they were professional geographers, as many were, became part of their own additions to Greek geography.
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.