8,3:1 Sangarios Bridge

That some confusion has befallen the road drawn at the right of Nicomedia is graphically evident from the isolated annotations Templ. Hercvlis and Sagar Fl above the line. On top of that, historical geographers have long puzzled over why the Sangarios river has been drawn so far to the right (and is also repeated as a very short river even further to the right). Ramsay (65) points out the main crossing over the Sangarios by bridge was just 15 to 18 kilometers east of Nicomedia.

This has led to various stories to explain the discrepancy. Those of a century ago have been entirely discredited now that Dusepro·Solympum is recognized as signifying a town named Prusa ad Hypium (Barrington Atlas, and based on this, DARE). Thus Miller's solution (that the latter is the fictitious Dusa am Olympus) and Ramsay's (that it is Prusa/Bursa) are obviously absurd, as are the redistributions of sites by Mannert and others.

Talbert does not query the distribution of stations on the lower line, but insists (TPP2110) that the two labels on the upper line denote a route over the mountains from Artane to Claudiopolis. This is a non-starter on geographical grounds alone. There would be no conceivable reason to walk over rugged hills when a level road in the valley was available. The graphic analyst pays more attention to the way the label X. Sagar Fl. is drawn. It is shown above a line which is long and ends in a hook, which is a surprising way to draw a back-way into the unmarked two-tower city below it, which is usually taken to be Claudiopolis. The shape of the line rather implies this is a fragment of a long-distance horizontal route. If we consider the muddle described in section 5,2 above, where Ad Horrea[1 has been pulled out of the line of Hadrito by mistake, it is possible to see how this line may have been been displaced from its true position.

My solution is to move Sagar Fl. to the left, where it would attach to the distance figure XVII m.p. It remains open as to whether the next stop should be Lateas or Demetriu, both unfound places. Hover your mouse cursor over the square button to see the emendation in action.

The Temple of Hercules is most likely a station on a bypass route with the distances XXX to the left and X to the right pertaining to the temple. Since the temple has not been found, it is impossible to say precisely where this joined with the main highway. In this or a similar sense, the upper and lower lines offer different stations along what is effectively one and the same route, a phenomenon we repeatedly find in the Anatolian sections of the TP. This duplication may have happened because the parallel lines come from two itineraries, but is likelier to be the result of awkward linework which was intended to fold a long road into a small space but has confused a copyist.