All Roads lead to Rome
Pastor Dale Morgan
All Roads lead to Rome*
Ancient Roman road map unveiled
By Bethany Bell
BBC News, Vienna
The landmass and the seas have been stretched and flattened
The Tabula Peutingeriana is one of the Austrian National Library's
greatest treasures.
The parchment scroll, made in the Middle Ages, is the only surviving
copy of a road map from the late Roman Empire.
The document, which is almost seven metres long, shows the network of
main Roman roads from Spain to India.
It is normally never shown to the public. The parchment is extremely
fragile, and reacts badly to daylight.
But it has been on display for one day to celebrate its inclusion in
Unesco's Memory of the World Register.
Practical guide
At first sight, it looks very unlike a modern map.
Every so often there is a pictogram of a building to show you that there
was a hotel or a spa where you could stay
Andreas Fingernagel
Austrian National Library
Both the landmass and the seas have been stretched and flattened. The
Mediterranean has been reduced to a thin strip of water, more like a
river than a sea.
Instead of being oriented from north to south, the map, which is only 34
centimetres wide, works from west to east.
But despite its unfamiliar appearance, the director of the Department of
Manuscripts, Autographs and Closed Collections at the Austrian National
Library, Andreas Fingernagel, says it is an intensely practical
document, more like a plan of the London Underground than a map.
"The red lines are the main roads. Every so often there is a little hook
along the red lines which represents a rest stop - and the distance
between hooks was one day's travel."
"Every so often there is a pictogram of a building to show you that
there was a hotel or a spa where you could stay," he said.
"It was meant for the civil servants of the late Roman Empire, for
couriers and travellers," he added.
Some of the buildings have large courtyards - a sign of more luxurious
accommodation.
Clue to ancient world
At the centre of the Tabula Peutingeriana is Rome. The city, represented
by a crowned figure on a throne, has numerous roads leading to and from
the metropolis. Some, such as the Via Appia and the Via Aurelia, still
exist today.
The Tabula Peutingeriana scroll dates from the late 12th or the early
13th century and was made in Southern Germany or Austria.
But Mr Fingernagel says it is very different from other medieval maps
and is clearly a copy of a much earlier document, dating back to the 5th
century.
"In maps from the 12th or 13th century, Jerusalem, not Rome, was in the
centre," he said.
"The interests of map makers in the Middle Ages were quite different.
They don't show roads or rest stations, instead they show the holy
places of Christianity."
And the map contains other details which indicate the original probably
dates back to the 5th century, including the city of Aquileia, which was
destroyed in 452 by the Huns.
The scroll was named after one of its earlier owners, the Renaissance
German humanist Konrad Peutinger.
Later it was obtained by the Imperial Library in Vienna - now the
Austrian National Library.
"It's unique," said Mr Fingernagel. "It's the only map of the ancient
world - although it's a copy - that gives us an impression of how things
used to be."
The Tabula Peutingeriana was included in the Unesco Memory of the World
Register this year, and was on limited view in Vienna on 26 November 2007.