Dicaearchus

Dicaearchus (c. 300 BC) was a Greek scholar from Messina in Sicily and a pupil of Aristotle. He was probably the first to introduce the concept of cartographic reference lines and developed later into the more formal meridians and lines of latitude that we now use. His first map appeared to use a north/south great circle that ran through Rhodes and also employed what was later to become the 36º parallel, which extended from Gibraltar to Rhodes as well as running through Malta^(a).

>In a review of the German edition (Ge) of  Frau’s book, Thorwald C. Franke commented “As a central starting point of his argumentation, Sergio Frau chooses a statement by Dicaearchus. According to Dicaearchus the distance from Cape Maleas to the end of the Adriatic Sea (without giving any number for this distance) is longer than the distance to the “Pillars of Hercules”, given as 10000 stadia. Polybius later corrects this to 22500 stadia (e.g. It 85 / Ge 83 or It 270 / Ge —). Since Dicaearchus gives the distance from Sicily to the “Pillars of Hercules” with 3000 stadia, there is a vast remainder of 7000 stadia which in truth must, of course, be smaller (It 272 f. / Ge —).”^(b) <

^(a) http://www.myoldmaps.com/maps-from-antiquity-6200-bc/111-dicaearchus-of-messana/111dicaearchus.pdf *

^(b) https://www.atlantis-scout.de/atlantis-sergio-frau-english.htm *