Is there a Roman atlas or some sort of Atlas of Antiquity handily available online?

Ofaloaf

Because I'm having rubbish luck searching for "Roman atlas" or "Latin atlas" on Google, and if I search for those terms here I'm more likely to find a map of Terra Nova in 2764 a.u.c. than I map a historical map of Europe with tidy little Latin names scattered everywhere, which is what I'm basically looking for.

I've been trying to gather as many Roman placenames (including nautical ones for various gulfs, minor "seas" within the Mediterranean, etc.) as possible, but just trawling through Wikipedia hoping that an old Roman name is casually mentioned for a place is tiresome as hell. Is there some site that truly has a detailed map of the Roman Empire that labels everything possible? I've found some scattered things here and there, but it's still not good enough!
 

Pachac

Something like this?

RomanEmpiremap.png
 

Elfwine

Ofaloaf said:
Oh my stars and garters yes, thank you. It's especially helpful that the page links to the Project Gutenburg source of the maps-- this is magnificent.
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Excelllent. </Mr Burns>

I don't remember where or why I found that, but its immensely convenient - though more useful for the East than the West, on the whole, for your purposes it seems to have ample coverage for both. :D

I trust this relates to your Romans in 1399 thing, incidentally?
 

Ofaloaf

Elfwine said:
Excelllent. </Mr Burns>

I don't remember where or why I found that, but its immensely convenient - though more useful for the East than the West, on the whole, for your purposes it seems to have ample coverage for both. :D

I trust this relates to your Romans in 1399 thing, incidentally?
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Yeah-- I suddenly had a fit and decided I absolutely must rename every sea province possible, which turns out to be a lot harder than I thought-- blasted Romans didn't have the foresight to come up with their own name for the Barbary Coast, and there's not even a little gulf in the EU3 stretch of the "Barbary Coast" sea province with a Roman name. Even with that dandy detailed map I had to just bullshit something. "Caesaeus Sinus" isn't even proper Latin, I suspect.
 

Pachac

Ofaloaf said:
Yeah-- I suddenly had a fit and decided I absolutely must rename every sea province possible, which turns out to be a lot harder than I thought-- blasted Romans didn't have the foresight to come up with their own name for the Barbary Coast, and there's not even a little gulf in the EU3 stretch of the "Barbary Coast" sea province with a Roman name. Even with that dandy detailed map I had to just bullshit something. "Caesaeus Sinus" isn't even proper Latin, I suspect.
Click to expand...

Mare Caesaeus?
 

Elfwine

Ofaloaf said:
Yeah-- I suddenly had a fit and decided I absolutely must rename every sea province possible, which turns out to be a lot harder than I thought-- blasted Romans didn't have the foresight to come up with their own name for the Barbary Coast, and there's not even a little gulf in the EU3 stretch of the "Barbary Coast" sea province with a Roman name. Even with that dandy detailed map I had to just bullshit something. "Caesaeus Sinus" isn't even proper Latin, I suspect.
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What's Latin for "Nameless Coast"? :D

That is meant as a serious suggestion despite the smilie. Using made up place names like that might make this a lot easier - its not as there's truly a better basis for naming them without having a better atlas.

Failing such Mad Literalism humor, something poetic and appropriate to the region translated into Latin works too.

Just my ideas, take 'em or not.
 
Thande

Thande

Donor
Ask Emperor Qianlong, he's the super-mega-ultra-hyper, as in probably more than most people you can find in academia, expert on this.
 

Emperor Qianlong

Thande said:
Ask Emperor Qianlong, he's the super-mega-ultra-hyper, as in probably more than most people you can find in academia, expert on this.
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I really feel flattered there, Thande! I've merely been trying to be meticulous there. :eek:

I feel kind of shameful now that I never got around to finish the Ancient Geography Database I made, but it already includes a fair bit of stuff. Much of it is drawn from the geographies of Ptolemy and Strabo, but I've used other ancient sources as well.

Otherwise, Ofaloaf, please ask what corner you are thinking about, I'll provide it... :D
 
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MrP

MrP

Banned
What is it you're after with Caeseus Sinus, 'Loaf? Caesarian Gulf? Sinus Caesareus, I think.

Elfwine said:
What's Latin for "Nameless Coast"? :D

That is meant as a serious suggestion despite the smilie. Using made up place names like that might make this a lot easier - its not as there's truly a better basis for naming them without having a better atlas.

Failing such Mad Literalism humor, something poetic and appropriate to the region translated into Latin works too.

Just my ideas, take 'em or not.
Click to expand...

Ora/litus sine nomine, old boy. :)
 

Emperor Qianlong

Okay, I have looked things up (this is a corner that I really didn't take a look at thus far), but:

Ptolemy refers to the coast of Caesarensian Mauritania as "Sardous" or "Sardoum" sea (I've seen both varieties in different versions of Ptolemy).
 

Ofaloaf

MrP said:
What is it you're after with Caeseus Sinus, 'Loaf? Caesarian Gulf? Sinus Caesareus, I think.
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A lot of these maps seem to dither on what order a name is arranged-- I've seen Mare Rubrum, but I've also seen Aegeum Mare. Is it supposed to be [type of body of water] [name of body of water] or [name] [type]? I suspect the latter is the doing of Anglophones.
Emperor Qianlong said:
Ptolemy refers to the coast of Caesarensian Mauritania as "Sardous" or "Sardoum" sea (I've seen both varieties in different versions of Ptolemy).
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Sardoum sounds neat-- that would do well, thank you. :)

Roger II said:
Not quite a map, but this might be of interest:
http://www.omnesviae.org/
Basically an ancient roman version of mapquest. Ok, It doesn't really account for places where the best route would be by ship, but still kind of useful.
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Neat! It's cool how all roads really did lead to Rome. Or at least, they would've if there was a bridge across the Bosporus.

One more question on top of all the other questions-- these maps all assume that the reader is familiar with Latin abbreviations, which is not the case here. In the the northeast corner of this map, for example, there's a series of places with names like "Naracrum Ost.". What's Ost.? There's also Fl., which at least goes along with all the rivers so that's easy enough to guess, but then there's S. (sinus?), Pr. (fr'ex, there's a "Mosylon Pr." in this map), L. (lake?), P. (found in this map of Athens and Syracuse), and undoubtedly I've already forgotten some because of this blasted heat, I hate humidity.
 
MrP

MrP

Banned
Ofaloaf said:
A lot of these maps seem to dither on what order a name is arranged-- I've seen Mare Rubrum, but I've also seen Aegeum Mare. Is it supposed to be [type of body of water] [name of body of water] or [name] [type]? I suspect the latter is the doing of Anglophones.
Click to expand...

I think it generally goes noun adjective, but it's a while since I looked at any texts, if I'm honest. Gallia Cisalpina and Asia Minor are examples of it. It doesn't make any difference from a translation standpoint, so I never bothered remembering. :eek:

EDIT: Sorry, didn't look at the bottom bit.

Ost. is probably ostium = a river-mouth, exit or door (Remember Ostia, Rome's harbour)
Fl. = flumen, yup
S. Could you give me an example of S. I don't think it's Sinus, as at the bottom there's Thermaicus Sin. and a few other examples.
Pr. = promonturium, promontory, headland, mountain spur.
P. = Porta, I think (gate, entrance). I had a look in my Brassington's, and it labels them Munichia (or whatever) Limen (which means gateway, threshold). This also fits with the Acharnaean gate in the pink insert of Athens. Could you point me toward the L.? It could well be Lacus, lake, as you say, but I can't see it, so can't say for sure.

I commiserate with you about heat!
 
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Ofaloaf

MrP said:
I think it generally goes noun adjective, but it's a while since I looked at any texts, if I'm honest. Gallia Cisalpina and Asia Minor are examples of it. It doesn't make any difference from a translation standpoint, so I never bothered remembering. :eek:
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If it's forgettable-ish like that, then I shan't concern myself if I find a source with adjective-noun.
S. Could you give me an example of S. I don't think it's Sinus, as at the bottom there's Thermaicus Sin. and a few other examples.
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Can't even find it now-- I blame the heat.
Could you point me toward the L.? It could well be Lacus, lake, as you say, but I can't see it, so can't say for sure.
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In the Germania map, there's Flevo L.-- probably lacus?


Thank you for the Latin pointers. I really ought to take one of those classes one of these days... :eek:

I commiserate with you about heat!
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If all the windows are opened, then the bugs just fly in! :mad:
 
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