The Tabula Peutingeriana is an amazing map. It is a map showing all the roads, cities and major towns, and physical geographic features in the Roman Empire around A.D. 400. It also shows how Rome's neighbors to include an Imperial Cult temple in India. Besides being pretty to look at the map was also useful for planning way points while travelling across the empire.
Today people use tools like Google Maps to plan travel. What if, in somesort of amazing wonder/nightmare world the Romans had technology like Google Maps? The Romans would then use Omnes Viae: Itinerarium Romanum, a Google Map mashup which uses the Tabula Peutingeriana to map out travels on the Roman road network. Using a Latin veneer, Omnes Viae shows not only the route on Google Maps using the Roman road network but also shows the path on the Tabula with all the towns, villages, river crossings, and mountains one would pass through.
I planned a trip from the Eternal City to Jerusalem. Basically one would take a nice excursion through all the major Eastern Empire cities such as Belgrade, Constantinople, Antioch, and Beirut.
Today people use tools like Google Maps to plan travel. What if, in somesort of amazing wonder/nightmare world the Romans had technology like Google Maps? The Romans would then use Omnes Viae: Itinerarium Romanum, a Google Map mashup which uses the Tabula Peutingeriana to map out travels on the Roman road network. Using a Latin veneer, Omnes Viae shows not only the route on Google Maps using the Roman road network but also shows the path on the Tabula with all the towns, villages, river crossings, and mountains one would pass through.
I planned a trip from the Eternal City to Jerusalem. Basically one would take a nice excursion through all the major Eastern Empire cities such as Belgrade, Constantinople, Antioch, and Beirut.
1 comment:
Oh cool! This is so much fun.
I hope you really do make your planned trip.
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