Itineraria
The Roman name for
1.
compendious lists of the names and distances of the different stations on the public roads,
after the manner of our road-books (
itineraria adnotata or
scripta); and
2.
chartographic representations similar to our travelling maps (
itineraria
picta, Veget. iii. 6). Of the former kind we have: (i.) the two Antonine Itineraries, the basis of which belongs to the time of the emperor Antoninus
Caracalla; but the edition which has come down to us dates from the beginning of the fourth
century. They contain lists of routes by land and sea in the Roman Empire; (ii.) the Itinerarium Burdigalensé or Hierosolymitānum, a.d. 333, the route of a pilgrimage from Burdigala
(Bordeaux) to Jerusalem; (iii.) the Itinerarium Alexandri, an
abstract of the Persian expedition of Alexander the Great, drawn up mainly from Arrian for
the expedition of the emperor Constantius against the Persians (A.D. 340- 345).
At Vicarello in Etruria have been found four silver travelling-cups shaped like
mile-stones, and having marked upon them a list of stations and distances from Gades (Cadiz)
to Rome.
Of the other kind of itineraries, in the form of maps, there exists a specimen in the
Peutinger map (
tabula Peutingeriana), now in Vienna. It
received its name from a former possessor, Konrad Peutinger, a councillor of Augsburg. It was
painted at Kolmar in 1265 on the model of an original map which dates back to the middle of
the third century A.D., and consists of twelve broad strips of parchment, on which are
delineated all those parts of the world which were known to the Romans; only the pieces which
should contain Spain and Britain are lost, with the exception of part of Kent. It is probably
derived from Agrippa's map. (See
Geographia.) It
is disproportionately elongated in the direction of east to west, the ratio of its height to
its breadth being 1:21. The distances from town to town are marked on lines running from east
to west, and the relative sizes of the towns are indicated by distinctive marks. An excellent
fac-simile has been published by O. Maier of Ravensburg
(1888), and the table is
represented on a small scale in the very convenient little
Atlas Antiquus of
Justus Perthes
(Gotha, 1893). See D'Urban,
Recueil des
Itinéraires Anciens, with ten maps
(Paris, 1845); Renier,
Itin. Romains de la Gaule (Paris, 1850); and
Notitia Regionum.
