In an age when many people may onerously make our technique to an unfamiliar grocery retailer without depending on a GPS navigation system, we would possibly neatly gainedder how the Romans may establish and sustain their mighty empire without such a lot as a proper map. That’s the question addressed through the Historia Militum video above, “How Did Historic People Travel Without Maps?” Or extra to the purpose, how did they travel without scaled maps — this is, ones “during which the map’s distances have been professionalportional to their actual dimension in the true international,” like virtually all the ones we consult on our displays as of late?
The surviving maps from the traditional Roman international generally tend to not take nice pains adhering to true geography. But because the Roman Empire enlargeed, laying roads throughout 3 continents, an increasing number of Romans engaged in long-distance travel, and for probably the most phase appear to have arrived at their intended destinations.
To take action, they used no longer maps in step with se however “itineraries,” which textually listinged cities and towns alongside the best way and the distance between them. By way of the fourth century, “all major Roman roads together with 225 forestallping stations have been compiled in a documentument known as the Itinerarium Antonini, the Itinerary of Emperor Antonius Pius.”
This primely practical documentument comprises maximumly roads that “handed thru huge towns, which professionalvided wagerter facilities for housing, storeping, bathing, and other traveler wishes.” With this information, “a traveler may reproduction the specific distances and stations they wanted to succeed in their destination.” Nonetheless as of late, some sevenyoungster centuries later, “maximum people wouldn’t use a paper scaled map for travel, however would as an alternative smash their journey down into a listing of submethod stations, bus stops, and intersections.” And for those who have been to try to drive throughout Europe, making a modern-day Roman Empire highway shuttle, you’d virtually certainly depend at the distances and issues of interest professionalvided through the synthesized voice learning aloud from the huge Itinerarium Antonini of the twenty-first century.
Related content:
A Map Displaying How the Historic Romans Envisioned the International in 40 AD
The Greatest Early Map of the International Will get Assembled for the First Time: See the Massive, Detailed & Fantastical International Map from 1587
Historic Maps that Modified the International: See International Maps from Historic Greece, Childlon, Rome, and the Islamic International
Download 131,000 Historic Maps from the Massive David Rumsey Map Collection
Primarily based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and extensivecasts on towns, language, and culture. His initiatives come with the Substack newsletter Books on Towns and the e book The Statemuch less Town: a Stroll thru Twenty first-Century Los Angeles. Follow him on Twitter at @colinmarshall.
