Romans and maps and such

Factual Questions
1

  1. In the movie Gladiator and I Claudius there are scenes where the emperors are looking over maps. But from what I’ve seen even the best of maps and charts are all but useless. Are there any written references or proofs on rulers or generals using maps in this way? It’s hard to imagine how it’s possible to rule such a large empire without fairly accurate maps. And the people before them. Supposedly they had even worse maps. How did the Persians or Assyrians manage? I’m thinking perhaps maps really are one of those paradigm shifting inventions that fundamentally changes the whole way we think about the world.

  2. In I Claudius there is a scene where Augustus plays some kind of Risk type board with some younger boys. Did they have such games?

2

There’s quite a useful selection of ancient maps (or copies/reproductions of them)here several of them are from the Roman era. They are fairly recognisable, more so towards the centre.

3

Also, ancient maps didn’t nessesarily follow the modern convention of looking like the land from high up in a balloon. Somtimes it was a line representing a road showing points along it of interest or importance and the travel distance. Sort of looked like a timeline. You’d see several lines radiating out from the town center and it was not to scale. But it did the job.

4

Spartacus has a big map of Italy at the end. It’s clearly there for the audience’s benefit, so they can understand what’s going on. It also looks too accurate to me. All really old maps I’ve seen, even if accurate over small areas, inevitably look distorted overall to modern eyes.

Worst offender: Atlantis, the Lost Continent, which features an amazingly accurate map of Europe by an ancient Greek fisherman who couldn’t possibly have that much knowledge.

5

You thought this upstaged the inclusion of a spurious mythical continent?

6

No, but its map was easily the most modern, detailed, and unlikely one in a movie about the ancient world.

I loved this flick as a kid, and there are so many great images and moments from it, but it’s profoundly silly and its plot makes no sense , and the “continent” is pretty damned small – more of an island (which is what Socrates was really describing in the two Plato dialogues). There’s an excellent skewering at the “And Yopu Call Yourself a Scientist” site.

7

Yeah, the submarine and laser beams were no problem, but that damned map! :smiley: