TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION E, 627 
of the Senusis in regard to the Cyrenaica exemplifies a policy which has been 
misinterpreted. 
He then inquired how far the modern geographical conditions represent the 
ancient, and said something on possible alterations in coast level and the nature 
of the ports, on which there is much to observe. Finally, he applied the known 
conditions to the ancient records and showed how far they accord with and 
account for them, and how far they are likely to influence also the future of the 
country. The ancient splendour and the modern fertility and amenity of the 
region were illustrated by photographic views, which also served to show some- 
thing of the coastal difficulties, 
2. Ptolemy’s Map of Asia Minor: Method of Construction. 
By the Rev. H. 8. Cronin, B.D. 
The way in which Ptolemy constructed his map of Asia Minor would appear 
to be as follows :— 
1. He fixed, partly by the help of observations, partly by calculation of dis- 
tances, the position of certain places to form, as it were, the four corners of his 
map. These were the four places he mentions by name in the first book of his 
Geography—Rhodes and Issus in the south, Byzantium and Trapezus in the 
north. The fixing of these positions really belonged to the construction of the 
map of the world, and was strictly prior to the construction of the special map, 
The area of Asia Minor, thus obtained, is very much too great; speaking roughly, 
it is a hundred miles too wide, and nearly as much too long. Herein lies the 
explanation both of his methods and of most of his mistakes. 
2. In the next place he fixed the position of certain towns on the sea coast. 
fhis would be the natural order to pursue; and his adoption of this order is 
made probable by what he says himself in book i., c. 18, of the relative ease of 
dealing with maritime cities. Of inland towns he complains that it is impossible 
to ascertain their position relatively to each other or to the towns on the coast. 
The towns so fixed would include Perga on the south and Ephesus on the west. 
3. He then proceeded to fix the position of certain towns in the interior, 
selecting for this purpose towns which stood at the junctions of important roads, 
Laodicea ad Lycum and Doryleum would be of their number. 
4, His method of fixing the position of these junctions can be demonstrated as 
follows :— 
The distance of Laodicea from Hphesus and from Perga, measured on Ptolemy’s 
map, agrees (or practically agrees) with the distance of Laodicea from Ephesus 
and from Perga, measured by road. A similar correspondence between map- 
distance and road-distance repeats itself too often in other cases to be the result of 
accident. The inference is that to fix the site, say, of Laodicea, he ascertained its 
distance by road from Ephesus and Perga ; compasses and a little judgment would 
do the rest. The distance employed was the full distance by road; allowance for 
windings, if it were known, would have produced a desert in the interior of a map 
the area of which was much too big. 
5. The distances from Ephesus (aud Idyma) to Doryleum and Amorium 
(measured in the two ways described above) do not correspond. It is otherwise 
with the distances from Byzantium to these two places measured by Nicomedia 
and Nicwa. Byzantium, therefore (or Chalcedon), was the point of measurement 
for the north-west. 
6. The map-distances from Chalcedon to Pessinus and (apparently) to Ancyra 
also correspond respectively with the road-distances, if the latter be measured wid 
Amorium in the first case and vid Amorium and Pessinus in the second. Theroad 
distance to Tavium is some thirty miles too great. The positions, then, of Tavium 
and of other places east of the centre of Asia Minor were fixed from the east by 
measurements going back ultimately to Issus or Trapezus. This, again, is what 
we should expect, 
ss 
