Abstract
The paper deals with the part played by ethnic division in the construction of space from Eratosthenes to Ptolemy. It illustrates the original relationship between the methods of the ancient periplus and the composition of maps, and shows how far the model of a coast-description conceived ‘tribe by tribe’ has shaped the principles of cartography. On the basis of Strabo’s theoretical considerations, the paper also emphasizes a certain distrust among Greek geographers, and accordingly cartographers, towards political information. Such an attitude, expressed in Strabo by the notion of kairos (‘case’, ‘constant change’), could explain, for example, the fact that the division of Italy into provinces carried out by Augustus had limited influence on the cartography of the Imperial Age.