Markianos of Heraklea Pontike

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Markianos of Heraklea Pontike ( Greek  Μαρκιανὸς Ἡρακλεώτης ) was a late ancient Greek geographer .

Nothing more is known about his life. Since he used the Periegete Protagoras for his work , he must have lived after it, i.e. in the 3rd century AD at the earliest. On the other hand, he himself served as a source for the work of Stephen of Byzantium , so it could not have been active after the 5th century AD. Evidence suggests that his creative period can be classified with a certain probability after 400. However, there is no external evidence for Markianos and his biography.

Markianos wrote a Periplus maris exteri (" Periplus of the outer sea"), which is based on the works of Protagoras, Claudius Ptolemy and Artemidor of Ephesus and from which longer excerpts have been preserved. In addition, epitomes (excerpts) from the Periplus maris interni ("Periplus of the inner sea ") of the Menippus of Pergamon and of the Geographia of Artemidor of Ephesus come from him . Most of these two writings by Markiano have been lost.

Probably Markianos did not bring his own experience, but only gave the information from his sources relatively unreflected. Behind all of his work, however, the plan is recognizable to compile comprehensive information about the entire then known world in a uniform form .

expenditure

  • Karl Müller (Ed.): Geographi Graeci minores. Volume 1, Paris 1855 (reprinted by Olms, Hildesheim 1965), pp. 515-576

literature

personal data
SURNAME Markianos of Heraklea Pontike
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Marcian from Heraklea Pontica; Marcianus Heracleensis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION ancient Greek geographer
DATE OF BIRTH 3rd century or 4th century
DATE OF DEATH 4th century or 5th century