Page:Ancient India as described by Ptolemy - John Watson McCrindle.djvu/16

 PTOLEMY'S GEOGRAPHY OF INDIA AND SOUTHERN ASIA.

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Ptolemy and his System of Geography.

Klaudios Ptolemaios, or as he is commonly called, Ptolemy, was distinguished alike as a Mathematician, a Musician, an Astronomer and a Geographer, and was altogether one of the most accomplished men of science that antiquity produced. His works were considered as of paramount authority from the time of their publication until the discoveries of modern times had begun to show their imperfections and errors. It is surprising that with all his fame, which had even in his own lifetime become pre-eminent, that the particulars of his personal history should be shrouded in all but total darkness. Nothing in fact is known for certain regarding him further than that he flourished in Alexandria about the middle of the 2nd century of our æra, in the reign of Antoninus Pius, whom he appears to have survived.

His work on Geography formed a sequel to his great work on Astronomy, commonly called the Almagest. From its title, an Outline of Geography, we might be led to infer