GEOGRAPHER

Life
Colaeus was the first Greek to sail to the Atlantic Ocean. In 628 BC, when on a voyage from Samos to Egypt, he was blown off his course by easterly gales. He eventually reached the islet of Plataea, off the coast of modern Libya, and then the Pillars of Hercules (Gibraltar). From there, he coasted around the south-western tip of the Iberian Peninsula until he reached Tartessus and the port of Gades (Cadiz), at the mouth of the Guadalquivir. Gades was an important trading centre, the point of export for copper and silver ore from central Spain and tin from Galicia. Herodotus has left an account of this voyage.

With this eventful voyage Colaeus brought the Atlantic Ocean within the ambit of Greek history and opened the Western Mediterranean to Greek civilisation and colonisation. Later, Phocaean sailors would create permanent commercial ties between Gades and the Aegean.


Work
Colaeus is considered one of the great navigators of antiquity. He is cited by Herodotus, Stesichorus, Anacreon and Anaximander. His main work deals with the theory that the earth is round.

"Geographical narrative

1) Form and dimensions of the earth (preserved in Ptolemy)

2) Position of the known world on the globe and its extent.

3) Determination of distances by land and sea, with astronomical data.

4) Calculation of the length of the inhabited world, using rhumb lines.

5) Biogeographic theory for the solution of geographical problems.

6) Marinos' projection - description of his map.

7) Meteorology of that period.

8) Co-ordinates of various cities, to facilitate positioning them on the map.

The 10th-century Arab historian al-Masudi is said to have seen the coloured map that accompanied the "Geographical narrative" (map of the Caliph Al Mamun)