| One on Europe, is essentially a periplus of the Mediterranean, describing each region in turn, reaching as far north as Scythia. |
| Mela's descriptive method follows ocean coasts, in the manner of a periplus, probably because it was derived from the accounts of navigators. |
| Details of this trading across the Indian Ocean have been passed down in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. |
| The other book, on Asia, is arranged similarly to the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea of which a version of the 1st century CE survives. |
| The few fragments that have survived indicate that this material was a significant part of the periplus, possibly kept as the ship's log. |
| It is believed to have appeared within a periplus by the geographer and explorer Pytheas of Massalia, but no copies of this work survive. |
