Do you need travel instructions for how to get around in the Roman Empire ? Then look no further ! This is the nearest thing to Google Maps for ancient Rome that you'll find. Sadly it won't quite give you Google's laconic directions ("continue along the Appian Way for 50 miles, then turn right") but it will calculate the fastest, shortest, and cheapest routes between cities. This is actually a research project and sometimes that's almost painfully evident :
Our model approximates the structural properties of Roman communication networks. Simulations of the costs associated with a given route are not meant to reflect the experience of any particular traveler. Rather, they seek to capture statistically average outcomes that cumulatively shaped the system as a whole. No one traveler would encounter such outcomes except by chance. The model simulates the average experience of a very large number of travelers taking the same route in a given month using a given mode and means of transport. It is this experience that is decisive for our understanding of how Roman networks operated. Patterns of connectivity were a function of average outcomes in the long term that shaped the choices of actors and hence the overall structure of the networks themselves.
It could use a better executive summary. For example, you can set both which type of route (fastest/shortest/cheapest) to calculate, but you can also set the method of travel independent of that. That makes it a bit ambiguous as to what it's really calculating. And the prices are given, confusingly, in "denarii per passenger in a carriage" even if you specify foot transport, and "per kilogram of wheat" either by donkey or wagon, whatever that means. Even so, it's fun to play with. According to this it would take about a week to go from Isca (modern day Caerleon, "fort of the legion" near Cardiff) to Londinum in winter on foot, but as little as three days by "rapid military march" in summer. To go all the way to Roma (the use of the original Roman names is cool but also kinda irritating) would take of the order of a month. Lots of fun, but it could use some polishing for outreach.
null
No comments:
Post a Comment
Due to a small but consistent influx of spam, comments will now be checked before publishing. Only egregious spam/illegal/racist crap will be disapproved, everything else will be published.