Greek civilisation represents a fundamental period for the cartography evolution thanks to the travels and discovery of new lands and their mathematic-astronomical knowledge.
In the first maps drawn by Greeks, like those one of Anaximander of Miletus (VI B.C.), the world was circular in form surrounded by water and showed the lands grouped and the Mediterranean sea in the centre.
Eratosthenes in III century B.C. improved the system of spherical ordinates consisting of latitude and longitude introduced by Dicearco of Messina enriching it with orthogonal lines set at different distance (meridians and parallels)passing on known sites. Such lines served to fix the position of other sites depending on the distance from the new points. This was a real geographic grid.
Eratosthenes is considered the “father of scientific geography”
Roman Cartography
In Roman times, the geographical and cartographical knowledge was mainly addressed to the practical needs of their military, commercial and administrative activities. The most important figure of the period was Claudius Ptolemy (II Cent. A.C.) who is reputed to be the most important cartographer of ancient times and author of a collection of maps of the known world (Geographia), considered the first Atlas
