When and where was Claudius Ptolemy born?
Claudius Ptolemy lived in the city of Alexandria during the second century AD. His exact birth date and place remain unknown to modern historians.
Questions about Ptolemy
Short answers, pulled from the story.
Did Claudius Ptolemy hold Roman citizenship status?
Most scholars agree that Claudius Ptolemy held Roman citizenship status despite being ethnically either Greek or Hellenized Egyptian. The name Claudius belongs to the gens Claudia family, a Roman custom typical of citizens rather than subjects.
What is the Almagest by Claudius Ptolemy?
His treatise known today as the Almagest stands as the only surviving comprehensive ancient work on astronomy. Originally titled Mathematike Syntaxis, it means Mathematical Composition in Greek.
Was Claudius Ptolemy accused of fabricating astronomical data?
Robert R. Newton published his book The Crime of Claudius Ptolemy in 1977 asserting systematic fabrication of data. He labeled the ancient scholar the most successful fraud in the history of science.
How did Claudius Ptolemy create his Geographike Hyphegesis map?
He provided a catalogue of eight thousand localities collected from Marinus and others which represented the largest such database from antiquity. About half of these places received assigned coordinates allowing placement within a grid spanning the globe.