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Writing geographia, like all intellectual pursuits in Greco-Roman antiquity, had its basis and its purpose in philosophy, and geographical theories and methods evolved in step with philosophical developments, as noted by Strabo at the outset of his work (1.1.1). This much was recognized in Agathemerus’s Survey of Geography (§§1–2), a brief historiography of pre-Ptolemean geography from Anaximander onwards. Early on, the Milesians mapped the earth in order to comprehend the nature of the cosmos and its motive forces, and their search for a reasonable governing order set the field for subsequent cartographic projections, arrangement of the continents, and studies of human inhabitants by region (Clarke 1999: 42–43). Later, the Peripatetics (see Shipley 2011: 17–18, 2012; Stevens 2016) under Aristotle and Theophrastus prioritized data collection and the summarization of what was and could be known about the world, emphasizing measurements, periploi, cataloging of peoples and places, and map-making, as evidenced by Theophrastus’s maps (pinakes) of places traversed by explorers (Diogenes Laertius 5.51: “the maps, in which are the circuits of the earth”). Scholars at Alexandria, such as Eratosthenes and Strabo, benefited from its repository of theoretical texts and pragmatic records. Taking a cue from their colleagues in literary criticism, they sought to establish comprehensive and authoritative geographies rooted in axiomatic wisdom, sometimes at the expense of observations of actual landscapes (Roseman 2005: 28–31, 39). Strabo (2.5.1) asserts that mathematical principles and astronomy are more reliable than on-the-ground observations of a landscape, citing a traveler on the Babylonian plain who when relying on local “notions” is ignorant of his true position on the earth, versus the geographer who is always oriented in space regardless of whatever the natives believe about his location. Ptolemy (Geog. 1.1.5–6) took a more temperate position regarding visual representations, arguing that world cartography requires mathematical skill, but regional topography (or “chorography”) is best done by an artist (graphikos anēr ).