Imperium Romanum Inde a bellow Actiaco usque ad Diocletiani Tempus.

A particularly interesting map, this is Karl von Spruner’s 1865 rendering of the Roman Empire under Diocletian (224 – 311 AD). Centered on Italy, this map covers the whole of continental Europe extending as far north as Ireland, as far east as the Caspian Sea, and extending southwards to include Roman holdings in North Africa, Egypt, and the Middle East. Like most of Spruner’s work this example overlays ancient political geographies on relatively contemporary physical geographies, thus identifying the sites of forgotten towns and villages, the movements of armies, and the disposition of lands in the region. This particular example focuses on the tumultuous period prior to the ascendency of the Emperor Diocletian. Diocletian presided over a bloated empire verging on decline and to prevent this established the Tetrarchy, or rule of four, in which the Empire was divided in to four segments under four different emperors. This set the stage of the division of the Roman Empire in eastern and western empires under Diocletian’s heir, Christian emperor Constantine. Three insets in the lower left quadrant show the disposition of provinces, legions and kingdoms at different periods. As a whol

Date

1865

Place

the Roman Empire in the 4th century

Archive

Wikimedia Commons

Type

map

Original size

3,500 × 2,964 pixels

Need maps for a whole project? Add Find Any Map to Claude and ask for this one by its id: 19758.