ABSTRACT
Despite Ptolemy’s extensive professional output in the fields of astronomy, mathematics, geography, and other disciplines, his life and career are hardly known. The sparse data are largely from late sources, and may be as much supposition as actual information. Nothing more is known about his family or his personal life other than the fact that he is consistently associated with Alexandria in Egypt and its environs. There is evidence that he erected an inscription at Kanobos. It was an ancient city, documented from the sixth century bc, and a religious center that by the late Hellenistic period had become a festive resort town. Olympiodoros may have recorded the inscription, and its text appears in various medieval manuscripts of Ptolemy’s works. It is a lengthy list of astronomical parameters.
