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Timosthenes
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Timosthenes

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Also known as Timosthenes of Rhodes

Timosthenes of Rhodes (Greek: ) (fl. 270 BCE) was a Greek navigator, geographer and admiral in Ptolemaic navy. He is credited with inventing the system of twelve winds that became known as the Greek 12-wind rose.

Wikidata facts

Instance of
human
Gender
male
Place of birth
Rhodes
Place of death
Alexandria
Occupation
geographer
Languages spoken
Ancient Greek
Military rank
admiral
Show 5 more facts
date of birth
0301-00-00
date of death
0250-00-00
floruit
0300-00-00
writing language
Ancient Greek
described by source
Pauly–Wissowa
Sources (2)

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Encyclopedic overview

2 sections
Contents
  • Career
  • References

Timosthenes of Rhodes (Greek: ) (fl. 270 BCE) was a Greek navigator, geographer and admiral in Ptolemaic navy. He is credited with inventing the system of twelve winds that became known as the Greek 12-wind rose.

==Career== In the 280s–270s BCE, Timosthenes served as the admiral and chief pilot of the Ptolemaic navy of King Ptolemy II Philadelphus of Egypt. He wrote a periplus (a book of sailing directions) in ten books (now lost), and was much admired and cited by other geographers such as Eratosthenes and Strabo. Indeed, Marcian of Heraclea went so far as to accuse Eratosthenes' Geographica of being nothing but the wholesale plagiarism of Timosthenes work. Strabo says only that Eratosthenes preferred Timosthenes "above any other writer, though he often decides even against him."

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Timosthenes” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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