“ALL ROME LEADS TO ROADS.”

“ALL ROME LEADS TO ROADS.” That was Mary Jane’s comment when I read her the news articles (here and here) about the display in Vienna for one day (November 26) of a copy made in the thirteenth century of a map of Roman roads dating from the 400′s. I have posted here and here on Roman roads. This wikipedia article has a picture of the map and a link to a better picture. The map, which has been compared to a subway map because it is stylized, was intended for the use of couriers and civil servants. It marks distances in terms of one day’s journey and displays pictograms to show that a site had a hotel. The map suggests that there are still lots of archaeological discoveries to be made; only about half of the 4000 settlements it shows have been found.