Wednesday, July 23, 2014

MAP OF ANCIENT ROMAN TRAVEL ROUTES
ALLOWS YOU TO FOLLOW ANTINOUS



WE know that Antinous and Hadrian traveled to many far-flung provinces of the Roman Empire ... and now an interactive map helps you appreciate how long it would have taken ... and how it would have cost ... to follow in their footsteps.


Rome was at its largest under Hadrian. The Roman Empire stretched across the length and breadth of UK, Europe and beyond covering a staggering 1,061,780 square miles (2,750,000 square km).

But its size was can also be attributed to its downfall as managing such a large expanse of land proved costly and time consuming. 

To put this expanse into perspective, historians have created the interactive ORBIS: Stanford Geospatial Network Model of the Roman World that lets you explore the Empire, and see how long it would have taken ... and how much it would have cost ... to travel the world in the time of Antinous and Hadrian.

The map of the Roman world was created by Walter Scheidel, an historian in the Classics and History Departments at Stanford.

It features 632 sites including urban settlements and mountain passes, and covers close to 4 million square miles (10 million square km) of land and sea.

The map reveals how much it would have cost to travel on roads and seas across the Roman Empire, and calculates the route based on the season or mode of transport chosen.

Map modes include travelling by foot, horses, relay, oxcart, porter, private chariot, and during a rapid military march.

Travelling by Imperial Entourage is perhaps the only option missing.


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