Ptolemy’s Geography Studies: Who Lives and Who Does Not Live on the Right Bank of the Vistula

Abstract

The research is carried out using several analytical tools, the most important of which was to identify and keep track of the sequences of the neighbouring tribes, since Ptolemy himself testified (I, 19, 2) that when speaking of the peoples, he was concerned to indicate their relationships with one another. This means that the peoples mentioned side by side in his text probably lived close to one another and could not be scattered over a wide geographical area. Another important tool for us is to notice and consider Ptolemy’s specific patterns of presentation, which recur throughout his work. A case where the author was not quite consistent with his usual way of presentation is likely to signal a problem with the sources. Finally, we based our hypothesis on the fact that the connectives that separate Ptolemy’s phrases separate the data from different sources as well.