Travel as a Roman

Travel as a Roman

Stanford University have created a “Geospatial network model of the Roman world”

Impressive Interactive Map that can calculate  travel times and cost (in Denarius)

ORBIS, can calculate journey times between 751 locations in the Roman world. The site draws data from The Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World which has  been georeferenced by Cambridge University Students. To calculate voyages on water, the site uses maps of rivers. Sea journeys are also possible, with routes calculated from the Romans' preferred sea routes. Dijkstra's pathfinding algorithm is applied to calculate routes.

The Mapping tool also calculates route dependent on the month for a journey, as weather conditions at sea and on land had a major impact on ancient travel times.

Users can choose from a menu of transport/travel options:

• Foot/army/pack animal, mule cart/camel caravan
• Military March (Rapid)
• Ox & cart
• Fully loaded mule
• Horseback rider (routine travel)
• Private travel (routine, vehicular)
• Private travel (accelerated, vehicular/horseback)
• Fast carriage

Try the Roman Travel Interactive Map:

http://orbis.stanford.edu/

 

Information on the Geospatial Technology used is see the section tabs:
Building ORBIS: Multi-modal network model via the Building ORBIS tab and selecting the Geospatial Technology Tab.