Ptolemy's map of Central Asia showing Central Asia and the Caspian Sea (left, blue). It is from an edition of Ptolemy's 'Geographia'. The text labels are in Latin. This 1482 atlas by German cartographer Lienhart Holle was a translation of Ptolemy's original work from Greek to Latin. Claudius Ptolemaeus, also known as Ptolemy, was an astronomer and geographer who lived in the 2nd century in the Greek culture of Roman Egypt.