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Writer's pictureArpit Shah

Revisit the Roman Empire with Orbis

Updated: Oct 28

From my Twitter feed, I got to know about this wonderful mapping initiative - Orbis: The Stanford Geospatial Network Model of the Roman Empire - which can be accessed from https://orbis.stanford.edu/.

Orbis' Application Interface. Source: Stanford's Orbis
Figure 1: Orbis' Application Interface. Source: Stanford's Orbis

The map-based model illustrates how big an achievement it would have been to run the Roman Empire spanning 3 continents - 600+ historical sites and 1000+ historical maritime routes have been mapped and forms a part of this Navigation Computation System which also factors in granular information such as wind speed and wave height prevalent at that time. Not only can one see how long would it have taken to travel from Point A to Point B using the modes of travel available at that time (donkey, carriage, ship and eleven more mediums), but also one can gain insights on how expensive it would have been to make that journey (estimates are in the local currency of that time - denarii). Thus, both Time and Cost parameters are taken into consideration.

Route Optimization for the Roman Empire. Source: Stanford's Orbis
Figure 2: Route Optimization for the Roman Empire. Source: Stanford's Orbis

One can only imagine the effort that would have gone into making this Mapping Project a reality. The Graphic User Interface is attractive - akin to playing a computer game built for History aficionados (do click on Start Exploring the Roman World to begin navigating the application on the website). As a Geographic Information System (GIS) enthusiast, Orbis demonstrates beautifully how one can assimilate complex Transport and Network data as a palatable visual illustration onto the canvas that is a Map.


I presume the Romans would have loved to explore Orbis and determine the most time and cost-efficient way to move their Army or to transport food grains across continents!

Have fun exploring Orbis!

 

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Mapmyops (Intelloc Mapping Services) - Range of Capabilities and Problem Statements that we can help address
Mapmyops (Intelloc Mapping Services) - Range of Capabilities and Problem Statements that we can help address

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