Misurazioni e distanze marittime nel Periplo di Nearco

In this paper, the data in Nearchus’ report relating to maritime distances, which we know from Arrian’s Indiké, will be ana- lyzed. The purpose of this analysis is to create a better under- standing of the aim and of the characteristics of the periplus. The relevant maritime distances can be divided into three groups: stadia, nychthemeron which equate to 24 hours or a day’s journey (= 12 h). The basis for this thesis is the assump- tion that Nearchus’ measurements at first were consistent and changed later, when it was necessary. Therefore, the periplus published after Alexander’s the Great death also resembles the change of the historical basic conditions because the data ga- thered no longer needed to satisfy the demands of a conquest. They were rather embedded into a text the function of which was the detailed reflection on the past. The length of a stadium within the periplus still remains an unsolved problem, but it is not very probable that Near- chus used his own ‘subjective’ measuring unit to indicate the distances between up to then undiscovered places. It is much more likely that Nearchus, by obeying the necessities, defined and gathered the new realities which were revealed by Alex- ander’s conquests with regards to surveying technology. He had to transfer the collected distances into a known and shared reference system when writing the first version of his periplus. The conversion from traditional nychthemeriai to stadia allowed him to position the ‘great King’s’ achievements within a geo- graphical framework. This framework made measurable the lands and seas which have been added to the Greek oikumene by Alexander’s conquests.