THE MAP IN RELATION TO CLASSICAL CARTOGRAPHY

Our ignorance of large Greek and Roman maps in general, and of the Peutinger map's original in particular, is so profound that it remains impossible to determine with confidence just how creative a work the latter really was. It is at least conceivable, however, that no previous mapmaker had been so bold as to take a frame of such extreme dimensions and then to set the entire orbis terrarum within it, with the city of Rome as the center point – all of which required that the landscape be remolded on an epic scale. There seems no reason to doubt that the large maps of which we are dimly aware reflect, by contrast, the scientific tradition of Hellenistic Alexandria with its concern for accurate representation of the world. To be sure, such cartography still offered ample scope for parading Roman achievements, and it was undoubtedly exploited for this purpose, as Eumenius illustrated at Augustodunum in the late 290s.

Naturally enough, it had been the Romans's traditional habit to envisage their surroundings from the vantage point of Rome and Italy at the center. This outlook was reflected in the so-called miliarium aureum or “golden milestone,” evidently a pillar (now lost) that Augustus set up in the forum at Rome in 20 B.C.; it recorded distances between Rome and communities throughout Italy.