The Roman Empire would not have been possible without its roads. They connected Rome with the furthest corners of its dominion, from the Scottish border to the Arabian sands. Roads were the veins through which flowed the information, goods and soldiers that kept the empire healthy and strong.
But Romans were better road-builders than they were map-makers. No contemporary chart of the road network survives; the closest thing is the 13th-century Tabula Peutingeriana, a 1-by-22-foot copy of a now-lost, but certainly equally unwieldy original. Strangely, it takes a decidedly 20th-century cartographic motif to bring the importance of Rome's roads truly into focus.
This map is modelled after the iconic London Underground diagram first produced by Harry Beck in 1931. Borrowing from the rectilinear design of electric circuits, Beck sacrificed geographical accuracy to simplicity and legibility, evenly spacing stations on straight, colour-coded lines – and creating a design icon in the process, the oft-imitated Tube map (see also #603).
This map, designed by University of Chicago statistics major and admitted “geography and data nerd” Sasha Trubetskoy, is subject to the same Faustian/Beckian deal, surrendering accuracy for effect. But what an effect. Finally, the importance of Rome's road network is visualised.
A note on that accuracy-versus-effect thing: the map shows the road system circa 125 AD, and only includes roads that did actually exist. However:
→ At its height, the Roman road network included more than 370 great roads, covering a total distance of more than 400,000 km (250,000 mi) of roads, over 80,500 km (50,000 mi) of which were stone-paved. Only a selection of main roads, and of major cities are shown here.
→ While many roads are named and indicated as they existed (e.g. Via Appia and Via Delapidata), some roads have been merged (e.g. the Via Latina, from Rome to Capua, was subsumed into the Via Popilia, from Capua to Regium).
→ The name of some roads has been stretched to cover a greater distance (e.g. the Via Aquitania only referred to the stretch between Narbo and Burdigala, but here refers to the road all the way up to Colonia Agrippina).
→ Some roads for which no name survives have been given an invented name (e.g. Via Claudia in North Africa, after the emperor who commissioned it).
→ Ireland is not included on the map because it was not part of the Roman Empire, and thus did not contain any Roman roads.
Those caveats being understood, it is a joy to use this 'Tube map' as a guide for imaginary travels across the Roman Empire, from Rome, the caput mundi (i.e. capital of the world) itself, to Eburacum (York) for instance. You take the Via Aurelia to Luna (a former city in Etruria), thence the Via Julia Augusta to Arelate (Arles, in France), then north on the Via Flavia I, switching to the westbound Via Flavia III at Cabillonum (Chalon-sur-Saône). At that road's terminus in Gesoriacum (Boulogne-sur-Mer), you cross the Channel to Dubris (Dover), where you rush north on the Via Brittanica past Londinium for the last stretch.
Add some dice and chance cards for attack by Gaulish brigands (two stops back), roadside promotion to centurion (one stop forward) and rebelling natives (skip one turn), and you've got yourself a cool new board game!
The map does not include sailing routes, which would be the preferred way to cross the Mediterranean. In summer, Rome to Byzantium would take two months on foot, one month on horseback and about 25 days by ship. Roman Roads is a work in progress; Sasha plans to publish an updated version soon.
Check out the map (and/or order high-res prints) at this page of Sasha Trubetskoy's website, which offers many more cool maps, including a map comparing the population of Moscow to that of other Russian cities, one showing the distance of Hawaii to the nearest land mass, and one showing the conurbations spanning the U.S.-Mexican border.
For more detailed, interactive views of the Roman road network, visit Omnes Viae, a Roman routeplanner; and Orbis, the Stanford Geospatial Network Model of the Roman World.
The Ancient Paths by Graham Robb offers a fascinating (though not entirely believable) theory of the pre-Roman, Celtic road network covering Europe.
For more on roads leading to Rome, check out #754 on this blog.
Many thanks to all who sent in this map, including Theo Dirix, Leif G. Malmgren, David van der Werf and Irene Carrión Álvarez (I'm sure I'm forgetting a few).
Strange Maps #845
Got a strange map? Let me know at strangemaps@gmail.com.
U.S. Navy ships
The U.S. Navy controls patents for some futuristic and outlandish technologies, some of which, dubbed "the UFO patents," came to light recently. Of particular note are inventions by the somewhat mysterious Dr. Salvatore Cezar Pais, whose tech claims to be able to "engineer reality." His slate of highly-ambitious, borderline sci-fi designs meant for use by the U.S. government range from gravitational wave generators and compact fusion reactors to next-gen hybrid aerospace-underwater crafts with revolutionary propulsion systems, and beyond.
Of course, the existence of patents does not mean these technologies have actually been created, but there is evidence that some demonstrations of operability have been successfully carried out. As investigated and reported by The War Zone, a possible reason why some of the patents may have been taken on by the Navy is that the Chinese military may also be developing similar advanced gadgets.
Among Dr. Pais's patents are designs, approved in 2018, for an aerospace-underwater craft of incredible speed and maneuverability. This cone-shaped vehicle can potentially fly just as well anywhere it may be, whether air, water or space, without leaving any heat signatures. It can achieve this by creating a quantum vacuum around itself with a very dense polarized energy field. This vacuum would allow it to repel any molecule the craft comes in contact with, no matter the medium. Manipulating "quantum field fluctuations in the local vacuum energy state," would help reduce the craft's inertia. The polarized vacuum would dramatically decrease any elemental resistance and lead to "extreme speeds," claims the paper.
Not only that, if the vacuum-creating technology can be engineered, we'd also be able to "engineer the fabric of our reality at the most fundamental level," states the patent. This would lead to major advancements in aerospace propulsion and generating power. Not to mention other reality-changing outcomes that come to mind.
Among Pais's other patents are inventions that stem from similar thinking, outlining pieces of technology necessary to make his creations come to fruition. His paper presented in 2019, titled "Room Temperature Superconducting System for Use on a Hybrid Aerospace Undersea Craft," proposes a system that can achieve superconductivity at room temperatures. This would become "a highly disruptive technology, capable of a total paradigm change in Science and Technology," conveys Pais.
High frequency gravitational wave generator.
Credit: Dr. Salvatore Pais
Another invention devised by Pais is an electromagnetic field generator that could generate "an impenetrable defensive shield to sea and land as well as space-based military and civilian assets." This shield could protect from threats like anti-ship ballistic missiles, cruise missiles that evade radar, coronal mass ejections, military satellites, and even asteroids.
Dr. Pais's ideas center around the phenomenon he dubbed "The Pais Effect". He referred to it in his writings as the "controlled motion of electrically charged matter (from solid to plasma) via accelerated spin and/or accelerated vibration under rapid (yet smooth) acceleration-deceleration-acceleration transients." In less jargon-heavy terms, Pais claims to have figured out how to spin electromagnetic fields in order to contain a fusion reaction – an accomplishment that would lead to a tremendous change in power consumption and an abundance of energy.
According to his bio in a recently published paper on a new Plasma Compression Fusion Device, which could transform energy production, Dr. Pais is a mechanical and aerospace engineer working at the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD), which is headquartered in Patuxent River, Maryland. Holding a Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, Pais was a NASA Research Fellow and worked with Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems. His current Department of Defense work involves his "advanced knowledge of theory, analysis, and modern experimental and computational methods in aerodynamics, along with an understanding of air-vehicle and missile design, especially in the domain of hypersonic power plant and vehicle design." He also has expert knowledge of electrooptics, emerging quantum technologies (laser power generation in particular), high-energy electromagnetic field generation, and the "breakthrough field of room temperature superconductivity, as related to advanced field propulsion."
Suffice it to say, with such a list of research credentials that would make Nikola Tesla proud, Dr. Pais seems well-positioned to carry out groundbreaking work.
A craft using an inertial mass reduction device.
Credit: Salvatore Pais
The patents won't necessarily lead to these technologies ever seeing the light of day. The research has its share of detractors and nonbelievers among other scientists, who think the amount of energy required for the fields described by Pais and his ideas on electromagnetic propulsions are well beyond the scope of current tech and are nearly impossible. Yet investigators at The War Zone found comments from Navy officials that indicate the inventions are being looked at seriously enough, and some tests are taking place.
If you'd like to read through Pais's patents yourself, check them out here.
Laser Augmented Turbojet Propulsion System
Credit: Dr. Salvatore Pais
