6:2 Flumen Aisaros

The unnamed river drawn inland from Caulonia is shown as if flowing down the chart, but back-projection suggests it is in fact the Aisaros (the modern Esaro) which empties into the Ionian Sea, and should thus be shown flowing up the chart and terminating to the left of the station marked Crontona (Crotone).

The main area rivers are usefully shown on the hydrographic map by Terranova and Garriano.

Talbert denotes this river-line no. 70.

6:1 Flumen Crater

The Crater is a short river which flows from the mountains of Bruttium into the Ionian Sea near ..... . Two river-lines on the Tabula are marked with the name Crater, but it is clear that only the one one at the right is the true Crater, whereas that at left should be marked as the Siris. The true Crater is moreover shown flowing in the wrong direction, as if it were a tributary of the Tanno. This solution is clear when one back-projects from the Tabula onto a geographic map.

Talbert denotes this river-line no. 69B. One cannot agree with him when he asserts: "Users of the map who inferred that this river is named Crater - understandably, because that name for a road station occurs close to the source - would in fact be mistaken." In his book at chapter 3, section 3, note 118 he classes it among rivers not to be identified from road-stations.

6:1 Flumen Siris

The Siris (modern Sinni) flows from near the town of Grumentum into the Ionian Sea at Heraclea. It is an obstacle for travellers on the coastal road and by all appearances had to be forded.

The current coastal highway from Taranto to Reggio Calabria almost certainly follows the same route. At the Sinni, one encounters a wide pool (Google Street View) which was perhaps dug to avoid the danger of flash floods, but gives some impression of how the ford might have appeared in ancient times.

Back projection from the Tabula onto a geographic map suggests that the Siris is present, but in the erroneous form of a river-line which is marked at its mouth as Grater Fl. and at its source as Fl. Crate. The most important argument for this is that the true Crater is in fact marked on the Tabula a little to the right.

Talbert denotes this river-line no. 68 and comments: "To add to the confusion hereabouts, the river is shown as originating in one mountain range (#59) and then flowing through another (#15). In reality, the river of this name should be flowing to the other side of the peninsula (thus up on this map, not down)." However he was mistaken in supposing number 68 to be the Crater.

9,4:4 Seleukeia

Seleukeia (see DARE) was the seaport of Antioch and the two cities were certainly connected on the ground, but there is no pressing evidence that the Tabula connected them on the chart.

Talbert, who seems to take the view that the drawing of Antioch's protective goddess is a non-original feature of the chart, opines (TPP532) that "a route into Antiochia from Selevcia has been overwhelmed by the former's elaborate symbol". A better argument for reconstructing the line would be that Seleukeia is likely to have been a starting point for itineraries towards Chalcis and Hierapolis, but the issue remains moot.

10,1 Chalcis

The confusing surfeit of roads east of Chalcis has never been conclusively explained. The trend in scholarship has been to see the series Cani - Bersera - Bathna as a duplication of the names Calcida - Berya - Bannis.

Talbert backs this with respect to the first two place-names, but seems agnostic about Bannis (see TPP2379, TPP2435 and TPP2436): "Calcida, Berya and the route to Bathna evidently make a second appearance on the route immediately below (as Cani, Bersera)."

Dussaud (1927) argued that Bannis and Thiltavri were false replications by the chart-maker of two place-labels belonging to an itinerary on the opposite bank of the Euphates, Batnis and Thiar:

Signalons ici une erreur de la Table de Peutinger dans la route d’Antioche à Zeugma. Il faut lire Emma (‛Imm) — Calcis (Qinnesrin) — Beroea (Alep) — Bathnae (ms. Bannis) — Hierapoli (Menbidj) — Zeugma (Balkis), en supprimant Thiltauri et Bathna qui sont empruntés à la route de Zeugma à Edesse (Thiltauri pour Thiar ou Daiara, et Bathna pour Bathnae-Seroudj). 

I have not ventured any emendation in the animated edition. However the abstract shows the Calcida - Berya - Bannis route as duplicated, in both green and brown.

9,4:3 Bacataiali

The place marked Bacataiali appears to be a mutatio on the highway crossing the hills between Laodicea and Antiochia. Miller 803 proposes that the figure of 27 miles is the distance separating it from Daphne, south-west of Antioch. In the Antonine Itinerary the stop at a similar place is named as Baccaias. Miller quotes the spelling Bachaias from the so-called Jerome Maps.

The emendation  restores the line into Antioch.

The alternative of a line to Seleukobelos across the Bargylus Mons and onwards to Apamea by way of the road shown in DARE was considered, but that road seems to be of only local importance.

9,1:2 Rhose

Miller 817 comments:

Nach der [Tabula] müßte man annehmen, daß die Straße von Damaskus bis Hatita westlich von Bosra gelaufen wäre; da aber Chanata an der Strecke über Bosra liegt und ferner die Römerstraße von Damascus - Chanata - Philadelphia zweifellos erhalten ist, und da ferner westlich von einer Straße nichts erkannt ist, so liegt Bosra an dieser Straße, und somit ist die Verbindung nach Philadelphia nicht von Hatita, sondern von Bosra aus zu ziehen. 

My emendation reflects this.

Richard Kiepert questioned whether Rhose, which has no distance figure attached, was a real place, and considered it "verschrieben und identisch mit Bostris, ... also doppelt vorhanden." Miller 818 quotes this, but instead adopts the stance that Rhose must be an unlocated site south of Bosra. On balance it seems best to treat it as some entity in the immediate vicinity of Bosra.

9,1:3 Jericho

Talbert argues for the restoration of a line connecting Jericho and Nablus. This emendation is argued from an appropriate distance figure already being entered on the manuscript here.

Finkelstein 33 notes that the space separating the distance figure into two halves, as "XX XII", suggests the downwards linework must have cut through the script itself, but voices doubt (note 45) that the endpoint of the road is Jericho:

Thomsen and Miller assumed that the number on the map indicates the distance from Neapolis to Jericho. The attempt to identify the line that was omitted from the map with the road from Neapolis to Jericho raises several questions: the number given on the map, 32 miles, is close to the distance between Neapolis and Jericho. Since the road goes down to Phasaelis and not directly to Jericho one would have expected the distance to be given only to the meeting-point with the Jordan valley road (at Phasaelis), about 21-22 miles. The Jordan valley road is, in any case, problematic and Phasaelis itself is missing on it.

The references are to Thomsen, P. 1917. ‘Die römischen Meilensteine der Provinzen Syria, Arabia und Palaestina’, Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins 40, 20, and Miller 834.

9,1 Thamaro

No emendation is required for the Jerusalem—Thamaro—Rababatora road, but the reader will profit from some elucidation being given. Finkelstein 30-31 notes: "‘Thamaro’ undoubtedly is the Thamara of the Roman-Byzantine sources, and is generally identified with Ain al-Hosb in the Araba."

On DARE, one sees how Thamara is located in the Araba valley, an arid plain south of the Dead Sea located below the Negev plateau. Ain al-Hosb, the name of a British police base there, has been replaced with an Israeli name. More history of the location is given in the Wikipedia article on Ir Ovot. It was reached by proceeding southwards from Jerusalem over a long highway via Hebron, a place which is not marked on the TP. Finkelstein 33 notes:

Obviously enough the place where the Thamara—Transjordan road diverged from the Jerusalem—Elusa road was in or near Hebron. It would seem therefore, that the name and placing of Hebron were omitted from the junction of these two roads.

Thamara is also a crossroads. This junction must have been the end-point of an itinerary used to make up this part of the TP, since the itinerary's only obvious continuation, southwards from Thamara towards the Gulf of Aqaba, is not present on the TP, although this does not prevent Finkelstein 31 from speculating about its likeliest course:

Most probably, the road from Thamara to Aila crossed the Araba to et-Tlah (Toloha of the Roman—Byzantine sources) [DARE] in the east. From there the road went up Naqb (the pass of) Dahal to the vicinity of Bostra (present-day Buseira), where it merged with the Via Nova Traiana. This is the easiest and the shortest way. It is reasonable to assume that the connexion with the Transjordan road should have occurred between the stations Negla and Thornia, and not near Rababatora as indicated in the map.

No such road is indicated in DARE.

Editing the TP I had the option of diverting the Thamara-Rababatora line in the light of Finkelstein's speculation, or even running it straight to Petra, or letting the connection stand where it is drawn, but as a thin black line. I chose the third option, since Finkelstein gathers ample evidence to make its interpretation as a minor road swerving away northward from the junction the most palatable:

Aharoni showed that the distance given on the map from ‘Thamaro’ to the Transjordan road — 68 miles — exactly fits the distance between Ain al-Hosb and er-Rabba in Transjordan north of Karak. Alt, and after him Aharoni, saw in ‘Rababatora’ a combination of two names: Raba (er-Rabba) and Batora = Bettoro, el-Lajjun, some thirteen miles south-east of er-Rabba....

The references are to: Aharoni, Y. 1958. 'Tamar and the Roads to Elath', EI, 5, 129-34 (in Hebrew) and Alt, A. 1935. 'Aus der "Araba" II', Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins 58, 33.

9,1:4 Amavante

The linework above and to the right of Jerusalem has suffered as a result of a Christian user inserting a gloss about Jerusalem in what is already an overcrowded space. The error leads to a puzzle: a geographically implausible connection from Gofna to a place named ‘Amavante’ — the town of Emmaus. Finkelstein 32 sets out the issue in neutral terms as follows:

Three important roads connected the Jerusalem region with the coastal plain near Lydda during the Roman period. These are (from south to north) the roads:

1. Jerusalem—Emmaus— Lydda
2. Jerusalem—Beth Horon—Lydda; and 
3. Gofna—Thamna—Antipatris.

The appearance of Emmaus midway and the distances given (19 and 12 miles) fit the course of the Jerusalem—Emmaus—Lydda road. Still, other details on the map refuse to fall into place. The road to Emmaus and Lydda went directly west from Jerusalem and reached Lydda itself; whereas the line in the Peutinger map verges westwards at Gofna — far north of Jerusalem — and connects up with [the] ‘inland’ coastal plain road, north of Lydda.

Finkelstein's choice of solution 3 is over-complicated: "On the Gofna—Thamna—Antipatris road [the chart-maker] placed ‘Amavante’ — Emmaus, where the town of Thamna should have been."

The graphic solution is far easier: it recognizes that route-line 1 has been simply miscopied to accommodate the gloss. Miller 835 silently adopts this solution too.