Timosthenes of Rhodes

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Herodotus world map
as it probably also knew Timosthenes

Timosthenes of Rhodes ( ancient Greek Τιμοσθένης ) was a Greek navigator and geographer of the 3rd century BC. Chr.

In Egyptian service

When Timosthenes 270 BC Was brought to Egypt by Ptolemy II and appointed commander in chief of the fleet, he had already made a name for himself and was considered the leading expert on questions relating to wind and seafaring. He had navigated the waters of the entire European Mediterranean coast, knew all the ports on the Red Sea and on the North African coast as far as Gades (old name of the city of Cádiz ) and had perhaps also advanced into the Atlantic. His expeditions were also favored by the fact that he was able to undertake them in relatively peaceful times. The First Syrian War took place in 271 BC. BC ended with a victory for Egypt and there was still time until the Second Syrian War (260–253 BC). The position of Egypt was unchallenged, and internal and external relations can be considered good and stable.

Works

  • He had his magnum opus between 280 and 270 BC. Written with the 10-volume text “ About the ports ” (Greek Περὶ λιμένων) and thus presented the best description of the coast of its time. It achieved fame as the “ Periplus des Timosthenes” and remained an often-quoted work for centuries.
  • In the geographic treatise "About the Islands" (Περί νήσων) he described Cyprus , Thera , Sicily , Kephallēnía and a large number of islands between Lesbos and the Ionian coast .
  • His Stadiasmoi (Σταδιασμοί) were precise descriptions of sea routes, which he created together with epitoms of the 10 volumes of his main work and completed with maps and wind charts based on the " Meteorologica " of Aristotle. He was the first to put Rhodes in the center of his maps, which his successors continued as a tribute to him.

All of these writings seem to have been lost in late antiquity and are only available to us as fragments in the works of other authors.

Further development of the wind rose

Greek 12 ‑ point compass rose after Timosthenes

Timosthenes is also of particular importance because he was perhaps the first of the Greek geographers to go beyond treating winds as a mere meteorological phenomenon and beginning to properly view them as points of geographical direction. It is thanks to the Greco-Roman physician and geographer Agathemeros (flourished around 250 AD) that Timosthenes' wind table was preserved at least as a fragment. According to him, Timosthenes assigns geographical regions and peoples to each of the 12 winds - relative to Rhodes.

The following list is based primarily on Agathemeros' tradition.

Peoples of the ancient world (c. 200 BC)

In many ways, Timosthenes' innovation is a significant step in the development of the compass rose . It is very likely that Timosthenes owes the further development of Aristotle's 10-pointed compass rose to a 12-pointed compass rose. He achieved this through the introduction of a wind from south-south-west ( Leuconotos alias Libonotos ), which Aristotle and Theophrastus had not taken into account, and replaced a wind that only occurred locally in the Aristotle wind system with Euronotos as the now generally applicable south-south-east wind.

hypothesis

World map of Eratosthenes

Perhaps Timosthenes is not only to be honored as a navigator and innovator of the wind rose, but also as a geographer who used his knowledge to create a basic map of the European Mediterranean coast. In this case he would be an immediate thought leader, if not the initiator of the world map that is ascribed to Eratosthenes . The following evidence could support this:

  • His wind and peoples table (preserved in fragment) is of limited use in relation to seafaring alone.
  • Timosthenes sailed and measured the Persian Gulf for length and breadth, measured in days of sailing.
  • He also calculated the distances between different places in the Mediterranean.
  • The division of southern Europe into three headlands (ἄθξαη) can also be traced back to Timosthenes. After all, it was only too obvious for the navigator to see the essential geographical feature of the respective region in each of the three large southern coastal promontories (Iberian Peninsula, Italy, Greece).

reception

Later geographers such as Strabo and Eratosthenes as well as the natural scientist Pliny referred to Timosthenes. Artemidor of Ephesus (100 BC), the most important specialist geographer between Polybius and Strabo, even went so far as to accuse Eratosthenes of plagiarism against Timosthenes, as can be seen from the excerpt from the epitomist Markianos of Herakleia (Marcianus Heracleensis) (flourished around 300 AD) . Chr.). Strabo reports, however, only: "Eratosthenes gives Timosthenes preference over any other writer, although he often turns against him".

In his work " Geographia ", Agathemeros gives the eight main winds and refers to Timosthenes, of whom he says: "... he developed a system of twelve winds by adding four to the eight winds that were used up to that point". Agathemeros is wrong here - since Aristotle at least ten winds have been considered, and not eight.

Modern scholars suspect that Timosthenes could have used the list of winds for the epitomes of his navigational aids, which would explain Agathemeros' eagerness to praise Timosthenes as the "inventor" of the 12-pointed wind rose. Timosthenes' geographical list is reproduced almost verbatim in the work of John of Damascus in the 8th century and a Prague manuscript from the early 14th century. In the pseudo-Aristotelian script De Mundo (usually attributed to an anonymous imitator of Poseidonius , probably originated between 50 and 140 AD) the names of the winds are almost identical to Timosthenes' names.

Despite these merits, Timosthenes' appreciation in modern times is rather modest and apart from Mount Timosthenes in Antarctica , which is named after him, little reminds of him.

Trivia

Strabo allowed a further look at the life of Timosthenes by reporting that Timosthenes participated in the Pythias in Delphi with a “Pythian way” . As always with the “Pythian sage”, Timosthenes' hymn of praise, accompanied by flute and kithara , celebrated the contest between Apollo and the snake python . Strabon's report is not entirely certain, as the corresponding passage in the text probably has a gap and Timosthenes may not be named as a composer but as an informant. Either way, however, it is evidence of the position Timosthenes held.

See also

literature

  • Friedrich Gisinger : Timosthenes 3rd In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume VI A, 2, Stuttgart 1937, Sp. 1310-1322.
  • Hans Hauben: Timosthène et les autres amiraux de nationalité rhodienne au service des Ptolémées. In: Proceedings of the International Scientific Symposium "Rhodes: 24 Centuries". 1-5 October 1992. Athens 1996, pp. 220-242.
  • Doris Meyer: Hellenistic geography between science and literature. Timosthenes of Rhodes and the Greek Periplus. In: Wolfgang Kullmann , Jochen Althoff , Markus Asper (Hrsg.): Genres of scientific literature in antiquity. (= ScriptOralia Volume 95). Narr, Tübingen 1998, pp. 193-215.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Pliny the Elder, Natural History , 6, 35-36 (cf. Hesperiæ = extreme west).
  2. ^ Hugo Berger : The geographical fragments of Eratosthenes Teubner. Leipzig 1880, p. 209, note 3 ( full text ).
  3. ^ Geographica antiqua p. 473 and Geographi graeci minores p. 179-180.
  4. ↑ Pliny the Elder, Natural History , 6, 33 .
  5. ↑ Pliny, Natural History , Chapters 5, 9 and Chapters 5, 35 .
  6. ↑ Example of quotations with reference to Timosthenes .
  7. ^ Schmid - Christ - Stählin, History of Greek Literature, p. 423.
  8. ↑ Strabon, Geographica, 2, 1, p. 353. (English).
  9. ↑ Geographi graeci minores p. 178 and Geographica antiqua p. 472.
  10. ↑ D'Avezac, Aperçus historiques sur la rose des vents, 1874, p. 19. (French).
  11. ↑ Johannes von Damascus, Orthodoxou Pisteos / De Fide Orthodoxa 2, 8 pp. 899–902.
  12. ^ Translation by ES Forster, 1914, Works, vol. 3, p. 159 ff.
  13. ↑ Mount Timosthenes on google.maps .
  14. ↑ Strabon, Geographica 9, 3, p. 363. (English).
  15. ↑ Ludwig Friedlaender : Representations from the moral history of Rome. 2nd volume. 9th revised and enlarged edition, taken care of by Georg Wissowa . Hirzel, Leipzig 1920, p. 168, note 3 (digitized version) ; Hugo Riemann : Handbook of Music History. Volume 1, 1st second edition. Leipzig 1919, pp. 63-65; Heinrich Guhrauer: The phyhtical nomos. In: Yearbooks for Classical Philology. Supplementum 8. 1875-1876, pp. 311-351.
personal data
SURNAME Timosthenes
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Τιμοσθένης (grcS)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek navigator and geographer
DATE OF BIRTH before 280 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH after 270 BC Chr.