7 ms·

Map of the Roman Empire Published Under CC 3.0 CC-BY

126 points by a_bonobo 11y ago

mrec 11y ago
Very nice, but labelling is a little suboptimal - Rome itself doesn't get a label until you zoom in twice. I don't know how this works in Google Maps content - is there a way to assign importance weightings to individual markers?
- maxerickson 11y ago
  It's using Google Maps javascript to show tiles from pelagios.org (redirects to their blog), so they could be using any rendering system (many would of course support importance for markers).
jsmcgd 11y ago
"An Incredibly Detailed Map of the Roman Empire At Its Height in 211AD" http://brilliantmaps.com/roman-empire-211/ http://brilliantmaps.com/roman-empire-211/ Direct link: https://i.imgur.com/lHoCQtt.jpg https://i.imgur.com/lHoCQtt.jpg Edit: this is not as detailed, but more responsive.
- xeromal 11y ago
  I actually bought this map a few months ago seeing it on a reddit post. It's a beautiful map and you can tell care was taken into producing it. It's about $45 USD, but I'm sure that barely pays for the amount of research they put into it. The labeling itself is meticulous. Be warned. It ships from Germany so shipping is about 2-3 weeks.
- jacquesc 11y ago
  Thanks for the link! Yeah, the custom google map tiles on the OP could be great but it takes 10sec to load whenever scrolling around. Hopefully they can get some CDN image hosting.
infinity0 11y ago
the web page is https but tries to load the map over http :(
- godzillabrennus 11y ago
  And? Why does it need to be secured? After all it's an ancient map. Unless of course you are afraid someone will snoop on your plans with Doc Brown?
  - jjuhl 11y ago
    Using https (encryption) always is not just about keeping content secret. It is also about ensuring content was not tampered with and ensuring you got the content from the source you expect. In addition to that there's the whole debate about encrypting everything because otherwise if only sensitive stuff is using encryption it's that much easier to pinpoint sensitive stuff for metadata analysis etc. Much better if everything is just encrypted by default.
    - yeukhon 11y ago
      True (plus no more mixed content warning) but not exactly 100% of the picture, warrants a footnote here. Unless you actually know which source you expect to get from, you can't tell if https://evil.com/evil.js https://evil.com/evil.js is intended over https://legit.com/legit.js https://legit.com/legit.js. In the end, they are over https, and authenticated. From a user point of view, I am not sure how we can actually defend that, but as an author of a page, you can try to enforce expectation with various HTTP headers (CSP, suborigin integrity). Authentication is one thing, but determining the integrity is another.
  - infinity0 11y ago
    It needs to be authenticated because I don't want to run injected javascript. (I have no idea if the inner frame contains javascript. My browser blocked it for me by default. That is the correct and good behaviour.) > After all it's an ancient map. It needs to be encrypted because I don't want other people to know that I'm browsing the ancient map. The map itself is public, the fact that I am reading it need not be public. Why are you afraid that I don't want you to know my reading list? Would you tell me yours?
seszett 11y ago
The map uses today's terrain and coastlines though as far as I can see, which doesn't help understanding eg. lack of roads in former marshes.
- r0muald 11y ago
  The "Antiquity à la carte" map has an ancient terrain layer by default : http://awmc.unc.edu/awmc/applications/alacarte/ http://awmc.unc.edu/awmc/applications/alacarte/
- decafrules 11y ago
  Actually, if you zoom in on the Netherlands - by far the most adapted (okay, also naturally changed) coastline since Roman times - you can see a thin blue line indicating the contemporary coastline.
  - mcv 11y ago
    If you zoom in, it switches suddenly between modern and ancient coastlines, but even with the ancient coastlines, it still shows all the modern canals, polders and the distinctive grachtengordel of Amsterdam.
- maxerickson 11y ago
  The about page discusses the data sources: http://pelagios.dme.ait.ac.at/maps/greco-roman/about.html http://pelagios.dme.ait.ac.at/maps/greco-roman/about.html And also links an article describing the map: http://pelagios-project.blogspot.com/2012/09/a-digital-map-of-roman-empire.html http://pelagios-project.blogspot.com/2012/09/a-digital-map-o...
- mcv 11y ago
  It's a weird mix of modern and ancient map features. If you zoom in on Netherland, you can see it switch from modern coastlines to plausible ancient coastlines, but it still has the modern map of Amsterdam clearly visible. It seems the creators may not have been aware just how much geography changed in the past 2000 years. Or maybe they just didn't care enough about the edges of the Empire.
nthcolumn 11y ago
FAIL:I don't see anything.
jjuhl 11y ago
Pretty cool (unfortunately also pretty slow - at least for me).
ant6n 11y ago
Well I found Lutetia but not Babaorum, Aquarium, Laudanum or Petibonum.
- ghostDancer 11y ago
  They were erased from history to hide their failure over some wild uncivilized Gauls.
cygx 11y ago
I find it pretty hard to navigate at higher resolutions as there's no visible indication of the size of a river or stream after switching from zoom level 100km to 50km.
hyperion2010 11y ago
Very interesting, however it paints a misleading picture of the empire because it is missing the most important trade and shipping routes: over the sea.
- toyg 11y ago
  I always found it incredible how Rome, a city of angry shepherds without a real port and with no serious tradition of seafaring, ended up using the whole of the Mediterranean as its personal highway and the heart of a huge Empire.
  - mcv 11y ago
    Their empire lasted a while. Given enough centuries, it's not so hard to acquire ports and develop a tradition of seafaring.
    - toyg 11y ago
      In fact, they did the exact opposite, at least initially. Pretty soon they were up against Carthage, a huge naval power with a long tradition of seafaring inherited from its Phoenician roots, and were soundly beaten in the first few engagements. The Romans turned it around by changing the game: they developed "boarding" tech that would basically switched naval engagements into more traditional brawls -- what caribbean pirates were still doing almost 2000 years later. In the long run, of course they acquired real sea skills; but they only leveraged those skills after they had acquired total domination over the Western Med. That's just amazing, imho.

126 points by a_bonobo 11y ago

mrec 11y ago

Very nice, but labelling is a little suboptimal - Rome itself doesn't get a label until you zoom in twice. I don't know how this works in Google Maps content - is there a way to assign importance weightings to individual markers?

maxerickson 11y ago
It's using Google Maps javascript to show tiles from pelagios.org (redirects to their blog), so they could be using any rendering system (many would of course support importance for markers).

jsmcgd 11y ago

"An Incredibly Detailed Map of the Roman Empire At Its Height in 211AD" http://brilliantmaps.com/roman-empire-211/ http://brilliantmaps.com/roman-empire-211/ Direct link: https://i.imgur.com/lHoCQtt.jpg https://i.imgur.com/lHoCQtt.jpg Edit: this is not as detailed, but more responsive.

xeromal 11y ago
I actually bought this map a few months ago seeing it on a reddit post. It's a beautiful map and you can tell care was taken into producing it. It's about $45 USD, but I'm sure that barely pays for the amount of research they put into it. The labeling itself is meticulous. Be warned. It ships from Germany so shipping is about 2-3 weeks.
jacquesc 11y ago
Thanks for the link! Yeah, the custom google map tiles on the OP could be great but it takes 10sec to load whenever scrolling around. Hopefully they can get some CDN image hosting.

infinity0 11y ago

the web page is https but tries to load the map over http :(

godzillabrennus 11y ago
And? Why does it need to be secured? After all it's an ancient map. Unless of course you are afraid someone will snoop on your plans with Doc Brown?
- jjuhl 11y ago
  Using https (encryption) always is not just about keeping content secret. It is also about ensuring content was not tampered with and ensuring you got the content from the source you expect. In addition to that there's the whole debate about encrypting everything because otherwise if only sensitive stuff is using encryption it's that much easier to pinpoint sensitive stuff for metadata analysis etc. Much better if everything is just encrypted by default.
  - yeukhon 11y ago
    True (plus no more mixed content warning) but not exactly 100% of the picture, warrants a footnote here. Unless you actually know which source you expect to get from, you can't tell if https://evil.com/evil.js https://evil.com/evil.js is intended over https://legit.com/legit.js https://legit.com/legit.js. In the end, they are over https, and authenticated. From a user point of view, I am not sure how we can actually defend that, but as an author of a page, you can try to enforce expectation with various HTTP headers (CSP, suborigin integrity). Authentication is one thing, but determining the integrity is another.
- infinity0 11y ago
  It needs to be authenticated because I don't want to run injected javascript. (I have no idea if the inner frame contains javascript. My browser blocked it for me by default. That is the correct and good behaviour.) > After all it's an ancient map. It needs to be encrypted because I don't want other people to know that I'm browsing the ancient map. The map itself is public, the fact that I am reading it need not be public. Why are you afraid that I don't want you to know my reading list? Would you tell me yours?

seszett 11y ago

The map uses today's terrain and coastlines though as far as I can see, which doesn't help understanding eg. lack of roads in former marshes.

r0muald 11y ago
The "Antiquity à la carte" map has an ancient terrain layer by default : http://awmc.unc.edu/awmc/applications/alacarte/ http://awmc.unc.edu/awmc/applications/alacarte/
decafrules 11y ago
Actually, if you zoom in on the Netherlands - by far the most adapted (okay, also naturally changed) coastline since Roman times - you can see a thin blue line indicating the contemporary coastline.
- mcv 11y ago
  If you zoom in, it switches suddenly between modern and ancient coastlines, but even with the ancient coastlines, it still shows all the modern canals, polders and the distinctive grachtengordel of Amsterdam.
maxerickson 11y ago
The about page discusses the data sources: http://pelagios.dme.ait.ac.at/maps/greco-roman/about.html http://pelagios.dme.ait.ac.at/maps/greco-roman/about.html And also links an article describing the map: http://pelagios-project.blogspot.com/2012/09/a-digital-map-of-roman-empire.html http://pelagios-project.blogspot.com/2012/09/a-digital-map-o...
mcv 11y ago
It's a weird mix of modern and ancient map features. If you zoom in on Netherland, you can see it switch from modern coastlines to plausible ancient coastlines, but it still has the modern map of Amsterdam clearly visible. It seems the creators may not have been aware just how much geography changed in the past 2000 years. Or maybe they just didn't care enough about the edges of the Empire.

nthcolumn 11y ago

FAIL:I don't see anything.

jjuhl 11y ago

Pretty cool (unfortunately also pretty slow - at least for me).

ant6n 11y ago

Well I found Lutetia but not Babaorum, Aquarium, Laudanum or Petibonum.

ghostDancer 11y ago
They were erased from history to hide their failure over some wild uncivilized Gauls.

cygx 11y ago

I find it pretty hard to navigate at higher resolutions as there's no visible indication of the size of a river or stream after switching from zoom level 100km to 50km.

hyperion2010 11y ago

Very interesting, however it paints a misleading picture of the empire because it is missing the most important trade and shipping routes: over the sea.

toyg 11y ago
I always found it incredible how Rome, a city of angry shepherds without a real port and with no serious tradition of seafaring, ended up using the whole of the Mediterranean as its personal highway and the heart of a huge Empire.
- mcv 11y ago
  Their empire lasted a while. Given enough centuries, it's not so hard to acquire ports and develop a tradition of seafaring.
  - toyg 11y ago
    In fact, they did the exact opposite, at least initially. Pretty soon they were up against Carthage, a huge naval power with a long tradition of seafaring inherited from its Phoenician roots, and were soundly beaten in the first few engagements. The Romans turned it around by changing the game: they developed "boarding" tech that would basically switched naval engagements into more traditional brawls -- what caribbean pirates were still doing almost 2000 years later. In the long run, of course they acquired real sea skills; but they only leveraged those skills after they had acquired total domination over the Western Med. That's just amazing, imho.