Taprobana (; ) and Taprobane (, ) was the name by which the Indian Ocean island of Sri Lanka was known to the ancient Greeks. History Reports of the island's existence were known before the time of Alexander the Great as inferred from Pliny. The treatise De Mundo, supposedly by Aristotle (died 322 BC) but according to others by Chrysippus the Stoic (280 to 208 BC), incorrectly states that the island is as large as Great Britain (in fact, it is only about one third as big). The name was first reported to Europeans by the Greek geographer Megasthenes around 290 BC. Herodotus (444 BC) does not mention the island. The first Geography in which it appears is that of Eratosthenes (276 to 196 BC) and was later adopted by Claudius Ptolemy (139 AD) in his geographical treatise to identify a relatively large island south of continental Asia. Writing during the era of Augustus, Greek geographer Strabo makes reference to the island, noting that "Taprobane sends great amounts of ivory, tortoise-shell and other merchandise to the markets of India.". Eratosthenes' map of the (for the Greeks) known world, c. 194 BC also shows the island south of India called Taprobane. Stephanus of Byzantium writes that a metropolis of the island was called Argyra (, "Silver"). and that also there was a river which was called Phasis (). Aelian wrote that he had heard that the island does not have cities, but seven hundred fifty villages. The identity of Ptolemy's Taprobane has been always associated with the present day Sri Lanka from maps of ancient antiquity till the medieval maps of Abu-Rehan (1030) and Edrisi (1154) and in the writing of Marco Polo (1292). Furthermore, most of the place names marked on the map can be identified with place name of the places in ancient Sri Lanka. Talakori port -Tadduvankoddi (Tamil) Margana Port from Mannārama port (Sinhalese), currently known as Manthai Anoubingara Port from Arunagiri Nagar port (Tamil), presently known as Trincomalee, Anourogrammoi - from Anur̄adhagr̄ma (Sinhalese), which later became Anuradhapura (Sinhalese) Bokana Port from the Okanda port (Sinhalese) Korkobara Port from the Godawaya port (Sinhalese) Rogondanai Region from the Rohaṇa region (Sinhalese) Also, the relative position of the island in comparison to India, being centrally situated on the Indian Ocean trade route and a major trading center for trade in elephants and golden spice as described by ancient Greek and