The chart-maker rarely selected such a large number of routes that
five of them would converge in a single town, as happens in the manuscript
at Tavio.
This consideration alone is grounds to be suspicious about the peculiar exit
drawn from Tavium towards Amasia.
French 29 notes that the author could not find
any traces of such a direct road, and this led the archaeologist to make two conjectures.
The better of these is that there is an error on the Tabula: the road to
Amasia leaves the well-documented Ancyra-Tavium road somewhat to the west of
Tavium, perhaps in the area of Alembeyli at a place 24 m.p. from Tavium
which is indicated by milestones. This road surface is also well documented by observable
traces.
French's inferred fork somewhere near Stabiv is the basis of my
emendation. Stabium's precise site cannot be located and no Stabium-Tavium distance
is given on the TP, so this emendation is a delicate one lacking final
evidence. French's
alternative conjecture, setting up a theory of how the TP in this
place might be right after all, is difficult to square with the facts and is not a sound fallback.
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