Voorburg (Forum Hadriani), 5 September 2011

(by Ton Zijlstra)

Sometimes you come across an example of using information in a new way that is so much fun, it deserves attention based on that alone.

Such is the website, launched last week, Omnes Viae (all roads) that takes the Tabula Peutingeriana map of the Roman Empire and turns it into a route planner using Google Maps. As a result it gives you the route a Roman would have taken, its distance and the travel time back then. It will tell you for instance that a trip from Noviomagi (Nijmegen) in the Netherlands to Rome itself would take 61 days and require multiple major river crossings as well as the crossing of the French/Italian Alps. All the locations mentioned on the Tabula Peutingeriana, from the present day UK to India are used. The map itself is a 16th century artefact that is in turn based on Roman era listings describing various routes through the Roman Empire (Wikipedia).

The website has been build by René Voorburg using available information on the Roman map as well as a database of the University of Cambridge that describes all the place names and shows them in parallel to the correct spot on the old map.

Below are two screen shots of the resulting Roman Empire route planner. An interesting new way of interacting with ancient information.