1,2:1 Gesogiaco

The absence of a vignette for Gesogiaco (Boulogne-sur-Mer) has been long noticed in scholarship, but the muddle in the nearby linework has not to my knowledge been discussed. Castellum Menapiorum surely cannot have been a place where five roads met, as it is drawn. A glance at the archaeological map (TIR, Barrington Atlas or DARE) shows that the fort was simply an isolated stop on a military road parallel to the Channel coast, probably the frontier until the Romans pushed the line further north to the Rhine.

Besides, in the TP ductus, parallel roads are not usually drawn between towns.

The mystery can be explained by studying the peculiar coxcomb-shaped junction (it looks somewhat like the Skoda logo in reverse) to the right of Gesogiaco. There can be little doubt that this was originally devised to be placed to the right of Lintomagi to cope with a shortage of space there.

It was an easy mistake to transfer the coxcomb leftwards to the Gesogiaco position, alongside the wrong vignette.

Hover your mouse cursor over the square button to see the emendation in action. The emendation (you may need to run it several times before it works smoothly in your browser) makes clear that the main highway left Gesogiaco and then forked at Lintomagi. There cannot I think be any doubt that Boulogne would have merited some kind of vignette, being the main Roman port of departure for Britain and a junction between itineraries as well.

A minor route from Boulogne via Gravinum in the Pays de Caux to Iuliobona (the Seine river mouth port of Lillebonne) accidentally became attached to this structure. Since Miller's day, Gravinum has been identified as Gréaume, a place where Le Maho points out there archaeological evidence exists for a concentration of pre-Roman and Christian sacred sites.

Le Maho, Jacques. 1978. ‘Vers une nouvelle identification de Gravinum’. Annales de Normandie 28, no. 2: 99–112.

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