Marinus of Tyre

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Cover for "Tabulae geographica" (1578), work of Ptolemy. Depicted are both Ptolemy and Marinus of Tyre, very likely in this order.

Marinus of Tyre (

Claudius Ptolemy's influential Geography
.

Life

Marinus was originally from

al-Masʿūdī
. Beyond this, little is known of his life.

Legacy

Marinus' geographical treatise is lost and known only from Ptolemy's remarks. He introduced improvements to the construction of maps and developed a system of

Cape Verde Islands. He used the parallel of Rhodes
for measurements of latitude.

Lunar crater Marinus (NASA 1967)

Ptolemy mentions several revisions of Marinus' geographical work, which is often dated to AD 114, although this is uncertain. Marinus estimated a length of 180,000 

circumference of the Earth
of 33,300 kilometres (20,700 mi), about 17% less than the actual value.

Marinus also carefully studied the works of his predecessors and the diaries of travelers. His maps were the first in the Roman Empire to show China. He invented

Isles of the Blessed (around the Canaries) to Sera (China). Marinus also coined the term Antarctic, referring to the opposite of the Arctic
. [1]

In 1935, an impact crater on the Moon was named after Marinus.

See also

References

  1. ^ George Sarton (1936). "The Unity and Diversity of the Mediterranean World", Osiris 2, p. 406-463 [430].
  2. ^ Chisholm 1911.
  3. ISBN 978-0-226-31633-8
    . Retrieved 4 June 2010.
  4. ^ Ptolemy, "33".
  5. ^ For a value of a 185 m or 607 ft per stadion.
Attribution

Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Marinus of Tyre" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

  • A. Forbiger, Handbuch der alten Geographie, vol. i. (1842);
  • E. H. Bunbury, Hist. of Ancient Geography (1879), ii. p. 519;
  • E. H. Berger, Geschichte der wissenschaftlichen Erdkunde der Griechen (1903).
  • "Marinus" in
    Brill's New Pauly
     (Brill, 2010)

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Marinus_of_Tyre&oldid=1184250015"