Mapping the Infrastructure of the Roman Empire

Video Introduction:

Check out the video introduction for this project on YouTube

Project Notes:

With more than 56% of internet traffic going through mobile devices as of January 2022, this project aimed to tackle the challenge of simultaneously providing mobile-friendly and full-desktop experiences through responsive web design.
This project provides an interactive mapping visualisation of Roman territorial expansion from 500 B.C. to A.D. 117. The primary focus is on Roman roads as it correlates to the growth of the empire. The Roman road network directly contributed to commerce, ease of travel, and enabled rapid movement of Roman armies and logistical resupply.
Why Roman roads anyway? They're longer-lasting than modern roads! Some of these ancient roads didn't see much degradation until tanks rolled over them during World War 2, but even so, the roads were still in decent shape after the fact. Furthermore, Roman roads were marvels in engineering in terms of placement and would give the modern surveyor the run for their money if there was a contest of who could make a straighter road far over the horizon.
Credit for the primary basemap depicting the Roman road network and the corresponding legend goes to Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire (DARE) project at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
This webpage was built to meet requirements for Module 10 (Final Projects) of the MAP 673: Programming For Web Mapping course at the University of Kentucky.

The link between Roman infrastructure and modern engineering

The Roman Empire's vast network of roads, spanning over 50,000 miles, was a monumental engineering achievement of the ancient world. However, these roads were not merely a means of transportation, but a critical component of the empire's organization and expansion. The construction and maintenance of the roads required advanced engineering techniques and an intimate understanding of the terrain's characteristics.

The Romans incorporated innovative techniques to ensure the roads remained stable and durable, even in challenging conditions. Culverts and other drainage systems were implemented to prevent erosion and ensure that water did not accumulate on the road surface. Stones and gravel were laid in a specific pattern to provide adequate traction for wheeled vehicles, while also allowing for efficient drainage.

The road network played a vital role in facilitating the exchange of goods, ideas, and culture throughout the empire, providing a means of transporting food, raw materials, and manufactured goods between regions. The Roman economy relied heavily on long-distance trade, and the network of roads enabled the efficient transport of goods across the empire. This trade helped to stimulate economic growth and provided a source of income for the empire.

The road network also facilitated the rapid deployment of troops and supplies, allowing the Roman army to respond quickly to threats to the empire's borders and to launch expeditions to expand its territory. This military capability was a significant factor in the Roman Empire's longevity and success.

The importance of the road network extended beyond the empire's borders, connecting major cities and trade hubs throughout Europe, Asia Minor, and North Africa. Significant roads linked major geographical locations, such as the Via Appia, which connected Rome to Brindisi on the Adriatic coast of Italy, and the Via Egnatia, which connected the Balkans to Constantinople.

The road network's significance can still be observed today, with many of the roads still in use or having influenced the development of modern transportation systems. For example, the Appian Way, one of the oldest and most important roads in the empire, served as the model for the modern concept of a limited-access highway. The importance of the road network is also evident in modern architecture and urban planning, with many cities and towns continuing to develop around ancient Roman roads.

In summary, the Roman road network was a remarkable achievement of engineering, organization, and expansion. The roads facilitated trade, communication, and military operations, allowing the empire to expand and prosper. The legacy of the Roman road network continues to be felt in modern transportation systems and urban planning, demonstrating the importance of advanced engineering techniques and an understanding of the terrain's characteristics in creating durable, efficient infrastructure.

Roman Roads and the Space Shuttle

Bill Holoman has an interesting insight into how the ancient Roman roads impacted the design of America's Space Shuttle program.
Check it out:
A history lesson for people who think that history doesn't matter:
What's the big deal about railroad tracks?
The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number.
Why was that gauge used?
Well, because that's the way pic.twitter.com/oNxWuJ4TAl
— Bill Holohan SC (@BillHolohanSC) September 27, 2019
then?
Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they had used for building wagons, which used that same wheel spacing.
Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing?
Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels pic.twitter.com/tRXF9Sarnx
— Bill Holohan SC (@BillHolohanSC) September 27, 2019
been used ever since.

And what about the ruts in the roads?
Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match or run the risk of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome , they were all alike in the matter of wheel pic.twitter.com/9ryilr1yPB
— Bill Holohan SC (@BillHolohanSC) September 27, 2019
ass came up with this?', you may be exactly right. Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the rear ends of two war horses. (Two horses' asses.)
Now, the twist to the story:
When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big pic.twitter.com/rXoRFzucDG
— Bill Holohan SC (@BillHolohanSC) September 27, 2019
from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains, and the SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide pic.twitter.com/UIeRopweFn
— Bill Holohan SC (@BillHolohanSC) September 27, 2019
Ancient horse's asses control almost everything and....

CURRENT Horses Asses are controlling everything else. pic.twitter.com/sBjhJEmQYN
— Bill Holohan SC (@BillHolohanSC) September 27, 2019

Detailed Legend

from the Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire (DARE) by the University of Gothenburg, Sweden

Placename	Zoom
Ancient place name (major places), e.g. HERCULANEUM	7
Ancient place name (all other places), e.g. Stabiae	8
Ancient name of rivers, e.g. Aufidus (repeated)	6
Ancient name of lakes, e.g. Lemannus	7
Ancient name of road, e.g. Via Appia (repeated)	10
Ancient name of natural features (island, mountain, cape) e.g. Vosegus Mons	9
Modern placename, e.g. Terzigno	10

Ancient name
Poseidonia/Paestum	Alternate names, only one is selected for the map
‘Delphinis’	Name in its attested form
Mediolan(i)um	Variant spelling
[Vicus Aventia]	Name known only from earlier or later source
*Neronia	Reconstructed name
Med(...)	Name only partially known

Map Symbols
Symbol	Identifier	Description	Zoom
	11	Major settlement (capital, colonia, municipium)	6
	17	Major fort (legionary fortress)	6
	13	Civitas capital (Late Roman Gallia)	8
	12	Settlement (civitas, vicus, other settlement)	8
	18	Fort (castrum, castellum)	8
	53	Fortlet, tower	10
	16	Road or coastal station	8
	31	Iron Age (Celtic) Oppidum	9
	35	Late Roman Oppidum	9
	19	Oasis	9
	61	Sanctuary or temple	9
	66	Bath	9
	32	Tumulus	10
	63	Cemetery	10
	21	Monastery	10
	24	Church	10
	14	Villa	10
	57	Mine, quarry or production	10
	49	Pass	10
	51	Bridge	10
	55	Road/milestone	10
	52	Aqueduct/dam/cistern/spring	10
	64	Monument	10


	Province, e.g. Raetia	5-7
Roman roads in Britain. Source: The Secret History of the Roman Roads of Britain, CC BY-NC-SA
	Main routes	5
	Principal branches	7
	Minor branches	10
Roman roads (Barrington Atlas). Source: Ancient World Mapping Center (AWMC), CC BY-NC 3.0
	Major roads	5
	Minor roads	7
	Aqueducts. Source: ROMAQ - The Atlas Project of Roman Aqueducts	8
	Limes, citywall	7
	Ancient coastline (AWMC, CC BY-NC 3.0)	8-9
	Perennial/Permanent lakes and rivers	5
	Non-Perennial/Intermittent/Fluctuating lakes and rivers	8
Elevation Source: SRTM 90m Digital Elevation Database v4.1 \| CGIAR-CSI		Zoom
	5000 m
	4000 m
	3500 m
	3000 m
	2500 m
	2000 m
	1500 m
	1000 m
	500 m
	0 m
	Sea level (Coast lines are modern)
	Below sea level
	Elevation every 100 m	11
	Elevation every 50 m	11

Land Cover Modern Forest and seminatural areas Source: Corine Land Cover 2000 seamless vector data - version 16, © European Environment Agency (EEA)		Zoom
	Broad-leaved forest	10
	Coniferous forest	10
	Mixed forest	10
	Natural grasslands	10
	Moors and heathland	10
	Sclerophyllous vegetation	10
	Transitional woodland-shrub	10
	Beaches, dunes, sands	10
	Glaciers and perpetual snow	10
	Inland Marshes	10
	Peat Bogs	10
	Salt Marshes	10
	Salines	10
	Intertidal Flats	10

Updating the datasets

Many online sources contain the shapefiles for depicting the extent of the Roman Empire during different periods of time. However, the datasets are often the same which would indicate there was an originating source that was copied and distributed far and wide.

One such source is from Harvard University's Digital Atlas of Roman and Medieval Civilization Dataverse from 2008. This study provides a portable, digital version of the Roman roads identified in the Barrington Atlas, which users can visualise in combination with their own historical data.

Citation:
McCormick, Michael; Huang, Guoping; Zambotti, Giovanni; Lavash, Jessica, 2013, "Roman Road Network (version 2008)", https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/TI0KAU, Harvard Dataverse, V1

Unfortunately, the Harvard dataset is not adequate enough when overlaid on a highly detailed terrain map. The example below shows the 2008 dataset over a topographic base map:

It becomes readily apparent that there is a mismatch. Taken at face value, the map can be interpreted in a way that shows how the Romans opted to conquer mountainous alpine territory instead of focusing their efforts on subduing towns and settlements in the fertile Po River Valley! This, of course, is not a logical conclusion. I applaud the work that went into creating the original shapefiles. However, I wanted to show a more realistic portrayal of what Roman territorial expansion may have looked like.

I was inspired by the old to create the new. Below, is my interpretation of what the boundaries may have looked like:

I used QGIS to perform most of the heavy lifting behind the scenes with vector layer creation, editing, analysis, and processing of data prior to use for web mapping. The Roman Empire extent layers were created from scratch and took into account terrain features that would have been obstacles to the deployment of Roman soldiers. There were many additional considerations taken into account besides terrain. The territorial boundaries in the new dataset better align with the Roman road network and account for more recent archeological findings.

Base Map Attributions:

Esri National Geographic World Map — Tiles © Esri — National Geographic, Esri, DeLorme, NAVTEQ, UNEP-WCMC, USGS, NASA, ESA, METI, NRCAN, GEBCO, NOAA, iPC

Tools, Resources, and Methodology

All software tools ran on a basic laptop with the FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE operating system:
MSI Pulse GL66 laptop w/ external monitor
CPU: 11th Gen Intel i7-11800H (16) @ 2.304GHz
GPU: GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile / 8192MiB
Memory: 65204MiB
QGIS 3.26.2-Buenos Aires was used for all data layer creation, and data processing and editing.
VS Code OSS 1.70.2 was used for code editing and interaction with GitHub.
GIMP 2.10.32 was used for general editing and processing of raster images.
Inkscape 1.2.1 was used to edit and create custom SVGs. The GeoJSON file format for most map data of the map data and later converted to TopoJSON file format to optimise webpage download times.
And last, but certainly not least, the Leaflet Javascipt Library 1.8.0 was used for mapping requirements, user interface, etc.

Additional Project Information

Dozens of maps and datasets were examined and referenced to create the new dataset displayed here. This includes independent research from Britain, Spain, Turkey, and elsewhere. Please check out my Github page for a comprehensive list of tools, resources, and methods used for this project.

https://github.com/siriusbontea/roman-empire#readme

Symbol	Description
	Major settlement (capital, colonia, municipium)
	Major fort (legionary fortress)
	Civitas capital (Late Roman Gallia)
	Settlement (civitas, vicus, other settlement)
	Fort (castrum, castellum)
	Fortlet, tower
	Road or coastal station
	Iron Age (Celtic) Oppidum
	Late Roman Oppidum
	Oasis
	Sanctuary or temple
	Bath
	Tumulus
	Cemetery
	Monastery/Church
	Villa
	Mine, quarry or production
	Pass
	Bridge
	Road/milestone