Baeton
Baeton (Ancient Greek: Βαίτων) was a man of ancient Macedonia who lived in the 4th century BCE. He was a contemporary of Alexander the Great, and participated in his campaigns, with his colleague Diognetus, as a bematist (ὁ Ἀλεξάνδρου βηματιστής) or "road engineer", that is, someone who measures distances in his marches.[1][2][3][4]
He wrote a work upon the subject entitled The Stations of Alexander's March (σταθμοί τῆς Ἀλεξάνδρου πορείας). Aside from a couple of stray quotes in the Natural History of Pliny the Elder, and the Deipnosophistae of Athenaeus, this work is lost, and no record exists of its contents.[5][6][7][8] Pliny mentions that a copy of the surveys of Baeton and Diognetus was given by Zenobius, treasurer of Alexander the Great, to the geographer Patrocles.[9]
References
- ^ Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 10.422b.
- ^ Pliny the Elder, Natural History 6.17. s. 21, 19. s. 22, 7.2
- ^ Solin. 55.
- ^ Almagor, Eran (2020). "The Royal Road from Herodotus to Xenophon (via Ctesias)". In Tuplin, Christopher; Ma, John (eds.). Aršāma and His World: The Bodleian Letters in Context. Vol. 3. Oxford University Press. p. 167. ISBN 9780198860716. Retrieved 2025-09-06.
- ^ Chugg, Andrew (2012). The Quest for the Tomb of Alexander the Great. AMC Publications. p. 235. ISBN 9780955679063. Retrieved 2025-09-06.
- ^ Ionescu, Dan-Tudor (2025). Alexander the Great in Bactria and India: Narrative sources and historical geography. Bucharest University Press. p. 290. ISBN 9786061615711. Retrieved 2025-09-06.
- ^ Laourdas, Vasileios, ed. (1968). Ancient Macedonia: Papers Read at the First International Symposium Held in Thessaloniki 26-29 August, 1968. Vol. 1. Institute for Balkan Studies. pp. 369–370. Retrieved 2025-09-06.
- ^ Griffith, Guy Thompson, ed. (1966). Alexander the Great: the Main Problems. Heffer. pp. 12–14. Retrieved 2025-09-06.
- ^ "Geography". Encyclopedia Brittanica. Vol. 9 (4 ed.). Andrew Bell. 1810. p. 545. Retrieved 2025-09-06.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William (1870). "Baeton". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 1. p. 453.