Wednesday, February 01, 2023

Sasha Trubetskoy’s subway-style map of Roman roads in Britain


you can get to a zoomable version at https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/roman-road-subway-map-underground-londinium

He had seen plenty of fantasy transit maps online and, he says, “I figured I could do better.” He just needed a subject, and he landed on ancient Rome, which no one had tackled before, despite its extensive network of roads across its vast empire.

His fans clamored for one specific to the network in Britain.

After the Romans invaded the Isles in the year 43, they set about building an extensive system to transport troops and goods across the newly conquered territory. Eventually, there were thousands of miles of roads criss-crossing Britain, but after the empire retreated in the 5th century, they were largely lost. Some were converted into more modern paths, while others disappeared.
“I tried to design the map from the perspective of the Roman government, even including official seals and writing everything in Latin,” he says. “I just think this mixture of new and old turns an ostensibly utilitarian map into something mysterious and exciting.”

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