Archive for the 'known_world' Category

May well fill the hole in my heart that was left when I lost constant access to the OED online.

"The Romans and ancient travelers in general did not use maps. They may have existed as specialty items in some of the libraries, but they were hard to copy and were not in general use. On the Roman road system, however, the traveller needed some idea of where he was going, how to get there, and how long it would take. The itinerarium filled this need. In origin it was simply a list of cities along a road. It was only a short step from lists to a master list. To sort out the lists, the Romans drew diagrams of parallel lines showing the branches of the roads. Parts of these were copied and sold on the streets. The very best featured symbols for cities, way stations, water courses, and so on. They cannot be considered maps, as they did not represent landforms, but they served a similar purpose much in the way schematic diagrams do for users of modern subway systems (e.g. the Tube map for users of the London Underground)."