並列摘要
With the development of the Greek colonization, the maritime trade and the frequency of personal communication, Periploi, a kind of geographical works recording the shipping routes, the ports, hydrological conditions, places of refuge, goods, cultural customs and political conditions around the Mediterranean Sea and its nearby seas, came into being in the sixth century B. C. These periploi were characterized by the simpleness in language, shortness in sentence and scarceness in ornament, which were also the style of the early Greek prose. It is generally argued that periploi were sailing directions of Greco-Roman seamen or captains. But if we pay more attention to their writing process, the writing purpose, the possible readership and compare them with medieval portolan charts, we can find that they could be more probably regarded as tourist guides or trade guides.