Maps of the Roman Empire

The Roman Kingdom&#x2F;Republic&#x2F;Empire is a really fascinating period of ancient history. What&#x27;s really mindblowing is when you realize that the Eastern (Byzantine) Empire didn&#x27;t fall until 1453.<p>If you&#x27;re looking for interesting listening on Rome, I highly recommend Dan Carlin&#x27;s Hardcore History Podcast. The series Death Throes of the Republic focuses on the period where Rome transformed from a Republic to an Empire (maps 13-16). I just finished listening to that a few weeks ago, and it was amazing. Additionally, Thor&#x27;s Hammer discusses what happened in Europe when Rome fell. There&#x27;s also an older series on the Punic wars, but I haven&#x27;t had a chance to listen to that one yet.

&quot;Traveling around the empire was excruciatingly slow&quot;<p>&quot;The researchers estimate that it took 7 weeks to travel from Constantinople (at the eastern end of the empire) to London (in the far west).&quot;<p>What a funny little empire with nice roads :). Check this empire:<p>&quot;And say, the governor went to Yakutsk, not months, for three years. The first year we reach Tobolsk. The second - to Irkutsk. And in the third year of riding on horseback to the upper reaches of the Lena and floated with water to Yakutsk.&quot;<p><a href="https://www.google.co.uk/maps/dir/Tobolsk,+Tyumen+Oblast,+Russia/Irkutsk+Oblast,+Russia/Yakutsk,+Sakha+Republic,+Russia" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.google.co.uk&#x2F;maps&#x2F;dir&#x2F;Tobolsk,+Tyumen+Oblast,+Ru...</a><p><a href="http://www.e-reading.ws/chapter.php/142600/90/Burovskiii_-_Pravda_o__zolotom_veke__Ekateriny.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.e-reading.ws&#x2F;chapter.php&#x2F;142600&#x2F;90&#x2F;Burovskiii_-_P...</a>

I can easily say that, if we have civilization, we can thank the Romans. Besides many things that they invented or &quot;just&quot; improved there were:<p>- Aqueducts: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_aqueduct" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Roman_aqueduct</a> - Roads: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_roads" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Roman_roads</a><p>In Italy, the SS1 (Strada Statale 1, that means, State Road #1), is the &quot;evolution&quot; of the Via Aurelia, built by Romans in the year 241 BC: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Via_Aurelia" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Via_Aurelia</a><p>But then the Barbarians from Northern Europe came...

If you&#x27;re interested in this type of thing, be sure to check out the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World [1]. I have a copy, and while it is expensive, it is simple _amazing_. I read Caesar&#x27;s Gallic Wars again and followed the movements of the army using that book and it was an intellectual orgasm of note. I&#x27;ll never read a military history book again without a detailed map, it completely changes the appreciation of it.<p>[1] <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrington_Atlas_of_the_Greek_and_Roman_World" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Barrington_Atlas_of_the_Greek_a...</a>

For #9, if you&#x27;d like to see the tactical differences between Phalanx vs Maniple battle formations, someone made a game simulation:<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJPq9sIOsuE" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=uJPq9sIOsuE</a>

Listening to the audiobook of The Gallic Wars by Julius Caesar is rich in detail and really grabs you by the throat. The classically trained narrator is superb. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snft290-FRc&amp;list=PLpO7W_VntCvOR4RdjL2zhY6cnNJBYBPN0&amp;index=2" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=snft290-FRc&amp;list=PLpO7W_VntC...</a>

Nice one, but I prefer this gif about the decadence of the Spanish Empire... the end is quite funny.<p><a href="http://oi58.tinypic.com/sbhoac.jpg" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;oi58.tinypic.com&#x2F;sbhoac.jpg</a>

Hank Green and friends produced a lovely set of videos that quickly and humorously go through the basics of the Roman Empire (among other things). It&#x27;s part of a playlist on the Crash Course YouTube channel on World History.<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPf27gAup9U&amp;list=PLBDA2E52FB1EF80C9&amp;index=10" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=oPf27gAup9U&amp;list=PLBDA2E52FB...</a>

Error on the legend on the map of the Rise of Constantine (section 31). The campaign against Maxentius should read 312, not 212.

If you&#x27;re interested in ancient maps, I&#x27;ve found that Geacron[1] very cool. It allows you to see a world map from any year since 3000 BC (of course with varying accuracy).<p>[1]: <a href="http://geacron.com/home-en/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;geacron.com&#x2F;home-en&#x2F;</a>

The map cdn1.vox-cdn.com&#x2F;assets&#x2F;4822180&#x2F;roman_civil_war.jpg seems to have mixed up labels for Roman Provinces and Client Kingdoms. I feel that about half instances of the word barbaric shouldn&#x27;t have been used in the article. Also I don&#x27;t see why unverifiable claims like &#x27;Charlemagne persuaded the Pope to crown him&#x27; had to be used. Nice, informative work besides that.

It&#x27;s almost entirely unrelated, but if anyone&#x27;s interested I would like to plug my current favorite history book: Phillip Sabin&#x27;s <i>Lost Battles: Reconstructing the Great Clashes of the Ancient World</i>. It uses a simple tactical (board) wargame system to explore ancient battles including several from the rise of the Roman Republic and Empire.

Lately I&#x27;ve become somewhat addicted to Dan Carlin&#x27;s Hardcore History podcasts. His episodes about the Punic wars can be purchased here: <a href="http://dancarlin.com/dccart/index.php?main_page=index&amp;cPath=1" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;dancarlin.com&#x2F;dccart&#x2F;index.php?main_page=index&amp;cPath=...</a>

Excellent and neatly packaged source of information. It would be great to have it translated into other languages.. I know so many people who would love to access this content but do not speak english.. How should I proceed to offer myself for voluntary translation?

I&#x27;m listening to an audiobook of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, so this&#x27;ll be a great companion.

I wish we had such course in school. I may have paid more attention! Fantastic use of contextual imagery with digestible content.

A great page and very interesting light reading on the topic, however a rather loose definition of &#x27;map&#x27; is in play.

Very interested. shows an easy to understand history lesson with great visuals.

A great summary, but I find it annoying people always only mention the Eastern Roman Empire in passing or as a footnote. It was a continuation of the Roman Empire in every way.<p>They were called &quot;the Roman empire&quot; or &quot;romans&quot; by themselves and the rest of the world. And they lasted another 1000 years, many of those as the dominant regional power, bringing the total lifetime of the Roman state up to a staggering 2181 years.

Those maps are good - yet they don&#x27;t explain the Roman Empire.<p>It&#x27;s actually tricky to explain the Empire. Over 7 centuries without _any_ significant technological progress. A political regime that is as archaic as its borders are vast - and it drove Europe&#x27;s political agenda up until the 19th century.<p>It&#x27;s possibly the most successful and devastating face of the plutocracy. When the Empire faded away in the 4-7th century, contemporary archaelogy now thinks that people&#x27;s life actually improved. The tax and ideological burden of the roman overhead was a toll on entire societies.

I looked at the map overlaying the US to contrast the relative size of the Roman Empire. I think it might be shown a bit bigger than it was. We vacationed in France and Rome and took a train overnight between them. That train had a ton of stops. I&#x27;m pretty sure that even without the stops, it would take longer than a night to travel by rail from approximately Montana (where France would roughly be) to the south-eastern Gulf Coast region (Italy).<p>Edit: Checking Google maps and more maps on the OP page I think I mis-calculated Italy&#x27;s position in the purple blob, it would probably be around where Kansas is.