T O P O G R A P H I A
A N T I Q V A

Strabo's Geography
[ 3/18/05: Books 1‑7, 15‑17 only ]

The Geography of Claudius Ptolemy: the world as one of Antiquity's great geographers actually saw it. In this Web edition of the Geography, I've started to replot all of Ptolemy's maps in his own coördinate system.
[ 7/16/98: 28 chapters, 13 maps, partial index of places ]

    (As I worked on the only existing English edition, it became painfully obvious that it is extremely bad. I'll have to switch to Karl Müller's edition of the Greek text with its Latin translation and its monumental apparatus: it is very good, but incomplete, in Latin and German rather than English, and involving Hebrew and Greek typefaces. While I'm sorting this all out, progress on my Web edition will be at a standstill.)

Hardly Roman, but medieval topography that might be useful in similar contexts, so I might as well mention it here: the Africa and Spain portion of the work of the 12th‑century Arab geographer Sharif al‑Idrisi is online here as well: the First and Second Climates, and the western part of the Third. He covers several Roman towns, mostly to say how the Arabs pillaged and destroyed them to the detriment of the surrounding region; he describes the lighthouse at Alexandria, which was still standing in his day.

Offsite: A remarkable site by the Franciscan Order on the Bordeaux Itinerary (A.D. 333) includes an introduction, the complete text in Latin and English, and a series of clickmaps of the pilgrim's route linked to over a dozen pages with large photos and further text.

Offsite: After many years looking and waiting for it, wondering how to do it myself, etc., a kind reader of my site alerted me that a complete readable copy of Peutinger's Table had come online at Bibliotheca Augustana, apparently in 2001, with a mirror here. The Tabula Peutingeriana is a must for anyone who wants to learn about Roman roads and the geography of the empire.

Offsite: the Imago Mundi of Honorius of Autun (12c) and related material.

[ complete — includes 3 maps ]

Roman Roads in Britain, by Thomas Codrington: published in 1903, this authoritative classic covers the entire Roman road network in the sceptered isle, offering as it goes many insights into the basic tools and methods available to the student of Roman roads. For example, the introduction includes a general discussion of study methodology and of road construction techniques (plus the 15 British itinera of the Antonine Itinerary).

[ 8/3/02: 1165pp in print presented in 64 webpages; 107 engravings,
2 plans, 6 maps; 4 photos of my own, not elsewhere onsite ]

Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria, by George Dennis: although there have been many excavations and advances in Etruscan studies since its publication in 1848, this 1165‑page book remains one of the best general surveys of ancient Etruscan monuments ever written; with the additional interest of recording (a) a number of monuments that have since fallen victims to the degradations of time; (b) the state of archaeology as it was making the transition from antiquarianism to scientific discipline.

Ferentum and Ferentinum: a small page in the miscellaneous category, listing and partially sorting out the various Italian places by those and similar names.