9,4:2 Alexandria ad Issum

The line connecting Alexandra Catisson (a strange misreading of Alexandria ad Issum) to Antioch requires completion, all the more so because it represents the main highway from Cilicia to Antioch.

The fashion in which the Tabula Peutingeriana is laid out hereabouts might be read to imply that roads nearer the coast provide a way to accede to the Levant, but this is not the case since the Amanus mountains reach all the way to the sea. The only usable route across them was the highway through the Syrian Gates, now known as the Belen Pass. The pass is the location of the building shown in the TP without a label, apparently at Platanoi.

At the other end of this route is the entry to Antioch from Pagrae. TPPlace2372 remarks: "It seems a reasonable conjecture that the mapmaker drew a route [from Pagrae] into Antiochia ... perhaps it was later overwhelmed by the elaborate symbol."

See also Miller 754 and TPPlace2333.

No comments:

Post a Comment