The use of tactical maps in late-1st C.AD

[Anonymous]

I agree that the Romans would not have had accurate surveys of new territory, and I know that maps such as the Peutinger Table do show a different world picture, not a bird's eye view. But the Romans DID have the latter concept as well; see the cadastral survey for the colonia at Orange in France (where the land is divided up into a grid and the course of a river through that grid is clearly marked) and the detailed Severan plan of Rome, which has plan conventions remarkably similar to our own. I've also seen a glass mosaic in Rome (in the Caelian Antiquarium; sadly closed, I believe, at present) which is a plan of a bath-house. So the Romans could cope with the idea of a scale drawing of the view from above – but presumably only after accurate survey.<br>
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If you read Tacitus' description of Britannia in the "Agricola", when he talks about Caledonia "tapering into a wedge", he's clearly got a map in mind.<br>
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I'm not saying that this means there were tactical maps, just that the world view to create them did exist, even if for most purposes itineraries of known routes were perfectly sufficient.<br>
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Shaun <p></p><i></i>