About 20 of the text entries in the Tabula Peutingeriana take the curious form of "from A to B: x miles".
In the past it has been common to regard these as superfluous additions to the linework, repeating what is already shown graphically by the chicanes and simple Latin numbers enclosed in dots.
The shared characteristic of most of these texts is that they attach to long curved lines with one or no chicane landing on a distant part of the page. For this reason I call them lobs in the sense of the longest shots used in tennis or by artillery. The text generally gives the place at left with ab and the place at right with ad.
The list with matching columns (whereby the last couple of entries are uncertain) comprises:
If this were to be so, the texts would indicate a special class of uncertain information, and they would not themselves be interpolations. Rather, the connecting lines and chicanes would seem to be errors added by copyists or readers who imagined these statements of distance to represent confirmed routes.
Commentary on the lobs in the past has noted the mystery without finding any satisfactory solution. Kubitschek 1919 suggests: "Daneben findet sich an verschiedenen Punkten der Tab. Peut., ich weiß nicht, ob nicht vielleicht Reste eines älteren Verfahrens darin zu erkennen sind, zwischen zwei Stationen die Entfernungsangabe ausführlicher gegeben" (2136).
Number 9, for example represents the distance from Actium to Larissa across the Pindus Range. Even as the crow flies, these are much further apart than the 70 Roman miles stated. The most direct route between these two points would be a climb on foot over passes in the Pindus where a modern road has now been constructed for a total distance of at least 265 kilometres, according to Google Maps. The wheeled-traffic route of the Roman era, along the Via Egnatia (only partially present on the TP), would make for a journey almost double as far. The 70 miles written on the Tabula may represent some textual note relating to that route of which the chart-maker could ultimately make no sense.
In the past it has been common to regard these as superfluous additions to the linework, repeating what is already shown graphically by the chicanes and simple Latin numbers enclosed in dots.
The shared characteristic of most of these texts is that they attach to long curved lines with one or no chicane landing on a distant part of the page. For this reason I call them lobs in the sense of the longest shots used in tennis or by artillery. The text generally gives the place at left with ab and the place at right with ad.
The list with matching columns (whereby the last couple of entries are uncertain) comprises:
- Adertona Iria [2,5]
- Abiria Cameliomagvs Milia XVI [3,1]
- Averona Hostilia Milia Passvs XXXIII [3,4]
- Abhostilia Per padvm [3,5]
- A VERESVOS THASARTE MIL XVIII [4,3]
- Hadreabhadre Bvrnomilia XIII [4,4]
- Athasartho SILESVA MILIA PASSVS XII [4,4]
- A SILESVA AD AQVAS MIL XIX [5,2]
- A SILESVA AVIBVS MILIA XVIII [5,2]
- AB AQVIS TACAPA MILIA XVI [5,3]
- Abactia nicopori Larissa vsq(ue) Milia LXX [6,4]
- ASYNNADE VFORBIO MIL XXXVII [8,4]
- Ab evforbio Abamea Mil(ia) XXXVI [9,1]
- Acomana pontica Gagonda XVI [9,2]
- Abhierapoli Zevma Mil(ia) pas(svvm) XXIIII [10,1]. As with the following lob, this may represent a join from one chart covering Syria only to another for the Euphrates valley where there was no overlap in the two and the chart-maker was uncertain about assuming a direct proximity. Hierapoli was a military town up in the desert, while Zeugma was a city in the valley.
- Abherapoli ceciliana Mil(ia) Pas(svvm) XXIIII [10,1]. This may have a similar genesis to the lob above. The chart-maker may have been perturbed by the distance for both being given as 24 miles, and judged this coincidence unlikely. Both places mentioned are military sites.
- Acomacenis in Heracome mil(ia) XIIII [10,1]. This annotation attaches to a long curved line crossing the high Taurus from the city of Mopsuestea to the Syrian military town of Heracome. A road here would have been nigh impossible. Comacenis appears not to refer to a single place but to a remote principality, Kammanu (capital Comana: see Dussaud), on the southern slopes of the Taurus.
- Atigvbbi Adfonte scoborem XVI [10,3]
- Melena XXII [7,1]
- Traiectvs Stadior(vm) CC [7,1]
- IN ALPE MA[..]T[.]MA [2,3]
If this were to be so, the texts would indicate a special class of uncertain information, and they would not themselves be interpolations. Rather, the connecting lines and chicanes would seem to be errors added by copyists or readers who imagined these statements of distance to represent confirmed routes.
Commentary on the lobs in the past has noted the mystery without finding any satisfactory solution. Kubitschek 1919 suggests: "Daneben findet sich an verschiedenen Punkten der Tab. Peut., ich weiß nicht, ob nicht vielleicht Reste eines älteren Verfahrens darin zu erkennen sind, zwischen zwei Stationen die Entfernungsangabe ausführlicher gegeben" (2136).
Number 9, for example represents the distance from Actium to Larissa across the Pindus Range. Even as the crow flies, these are much further apart than the 70 Roman miles stated. The most direct route between these two points would be a climb on foot over passes in the Pindus where a modern road has now been constructed for a total distance of at least 265 kilometres, according to Google Maps. The wheeled-traffic route of the Roman era, along the Via Egnatia (only partially present on the TP), would make for a journey almost double as far. The 70 miles written on the Tabula may represent some textual note relating to that route of which the chart-maker could ultimately make no sense.
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