You know the phrase “all roads lead to Rome”? Well, with OmnesViae, you can see which roads they are. It’s a route planner that takes inspiration and directions from Tabula Peutingeriana (or the Peutinger Map), a proxy for a ‘road map’ of the Roman Empire. Big Think dug a little deeper into the concept:
Whatever its ultimate age, the shape of the Tabula — about a foot high and 22 feet long (33 cm by 6.75 m) — tells us that it cannot be topographically accurate. Instead, it focuses on presenting road corridors and connectors, with a few branches forking off through Persia all the way to India. By sacrificing topographic accuracy for network connectivity, the Peutinger Map is strangely reminiscent (or should that be “predictive”) of the London Tube map and other modern metro maps.
A tube-style map of the Roman Empire? It’s been done.