Ptolemy

About Ptolemy

Claudius Ptolemaeus, known in English as Ptolemy, was a Greco-Roman polymath based in Roman Egypt during the second century CE. His profound influence, which places him at #253 on the Pantheon HPI, stems primarily from his foundational contributions to geography and astronomy. Ptolemy synthesized earlier knowledge to produce the *Almagest*, a work that outlined a geocentric model of the universe which remained the authoritative view for over a millennium, influencing thinkers up to the time of Copernicus and later debates on celestial mechanics. His *Geography* was also a landmark text, establishing latitude and longitude, which proved vital to later cartographers.

In the modern digital era, Ptolemy garners approximately 533K annualized Wikipedia views in 2025. This level of attention places his Attention Gap at approximately 1x, suggesting his current online visibility is roughly commensurate with his high historical importance. However, this stable level of attention must be considered relative to other figures from the same era; for instance, Mary Magdalene commands nearly four times his viewership at 1.9M views despite a lower HPI rank of #580. While Ptolemy is not currently being actively forgotten in the way some other highly ranked figures are, his 2025 viewership shows a year-over-year decrease of 16.1% and a Q1 to Q3 momentum decline of 8%, signaling a slight, observable fade in contemporary digital interest.