Spherical earth: from the ancient Greeks to the period of the Great geographic discoveries

The review deals with the origin and late development of the spherical Earth's doctrine in ancient Greece, as well as how it was assimilated in other cultures that came into the contact with Hellenistic culture directly or through a chain of tradition. Special attention is paid to the methods of mathematical geography, which allow to measure the circumference of the globe and to determine the coordinates of geographical points on its surface.