Tag: Romans

• Roads of the Roman Empire: how many days from Rome to anywhere?

  

  Itiner-e, the new open map of Roman roads, holds 299,171 km of road. Only 2.7% is certain. Walked in a model, London is 81 days from Rome, Alexandria 180, and by road alone Carthage is further than either.

  Tristan Hotham

  Data stories, Games & other interests

  archaeology, history, Romans

• By road and by sea: the fastest way from Rome to anywhere in the Roman Empire

  

  By road alone Carthage was 210 days’ walk from Rome. With a ship it was 6. I added the sea to my map of Roman roads, with sailing speeds from ancient voyages and the summer etesian winds.

  Tristan Hotham

  Data stories, Games & other interests

  coast and sea, history, Romans

• Ptolemy’s world, measured

  

  Ptolemy wrote the ancient world down as a table of coordinates. I matched 2,358 of his places to where they really are: shrink his longitudes by 0.72 and the map falls into place, but Scotland is still turned on its side and Sri Lanka is 15 times too big.

  Tristan Hotham

  Data stories, Games & other interests

  history, old maps, Romans, world maps

• The Peutinger Table: a Roman road map that squashed the world

  

  I set a Roman road map 6.75 m long beside a modern one. It squashes the world 11 times north to south, yet 53% of its road distances are within 25% of the real road, and it switches to Gallic leagues exactly where it says it does.

  Tristan Hotham

  Data stories, Games & other interests

  history, old maps, Romans, world maps

• Lost money: Roman coins found in England, reign by reign

  

  275,206 Roman coins recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme, mapped district by district and reign by reign. The coin curve is the classic one. The map of it is a step, not a slope.

  Tristan Hotham

  Data stories, Games & other interests

  archaeology, Britain, industry, Romans