Shown above is a map of what was the Holy Roman Empire that is retold as if it were a large railway network.
The Roman Empire comprises most of southern Europe, as well as Britain, northern Africa, and western Asia. According to Ancient History Encyclopedia, the trade of different materials, including food, animal by-products, and precious metals, was commonplace when the Empire existed. In fact, the Empire’s products have gone as far as the neighboring Parthian Empire in central Asia and beyond.
This reimagined map of ancient Roman roads is the brainchild of Virginia-based cartographer Sasha Trubetskoy. He created the map in 2017, complete with trade routes within the Empire and Latin text all throughout the map.
Trubetskoy says that he took into account different factors while making the Roman highway map. First, he was limited to including only the Empire’s major cities and those with large populations. He also created road names unique to the map, or altered some road names based on their real-life historical origins. Owing to accuracy and service to his readers, he modified the map accordingly as well based on user comments.
These books tell us how trade was done within the Roman Empire and beyond:
- The Roman Empire and the Silk Routes: The Ancient World Economy and the Empires of Parthia, Central Asia and Han China
- The Roman Empire and the Indian Ocean: The Ancient World Economy & the Kingdoms of Africa, Arabia & India
- The Socio-Economics of Roman Storage: Agriculture, Trade, and Family
- The Roman Market Economy (The Princeton Economic History of the Western World)
- The Economy of the Greek Cities: From the Archaic Period to the Early Roman Empire
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