Pierre Lapie and the Roman road net work in Moesia
Florin-Gheorghe Fodorean1
1 Associate professor, Dr. Habil., Babeş-Bolyai
University Cluj-Napoca, faculty of History and Philosophy, Department of Ancient
History and Archaeology. Email:
fodorean_f@yahoo.com.
ABSTRACT: In the Festschrift zum 70. Geburtstag von Anthony R. Birley,
Richard Talbert published an article about a map which, as the author affirms,
skipped the attention of the historians. In fact, it is a set of nine maps, at a
scale of approximately 1:3,400,000, illustrating, according to a modern
representation, the Roman world. The geographical space represented starts from
the Antonine Wall and Britain in the left side and ends to Hierasycaminos on the
border between Egypt and Nubia. The maps are part of a two volume project,
commissioned by Agricol Fortia d’Urban (1756-1843). The book, entitled Recueil
des Itinéraires Anciens comprenant l’Itinéraire d’Antonin, la Table de Peutinger
et un choix des périples grecs, avec dix cartes dressées par M. le Colonel Lapie,
was published in 1845 by the Imprimerie Royale, Paris. The maps were created by
one of the most famous French cartographer of the XIXth century, Pierre M. Lapie
(1799-1850). Our study discusses the information from this maps regading Moesia
and the accuracy of the cartographer during the process of mapping the Roman
roads from the south-danubian province.
KEYWORDS: Roman cartography, Tabula Peutingeriana, geographical space,
cartographic tradition, itineraria, modern cartography, Moesia.
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