The Roman Map of Britain Home Page

Ravenna Cosmography Roman Britain Notitia Dignitatum Antonine Itineraries Ptolemy's Geography Rudge Cup Amiens patera Romano British Peutinger Table Cursus Publicus Tabula Peutingeriana Claudius Ptolemaeus Itinerarium Provinciarum Antonini Augusti Ravennatis Anonymi Cosmographia Kosmographie des anonymen Geographen von Ravenna cartography epigraphy palaeography
The Roman Map of Britain

    In 1994 the author began a study of the British section of a manuscript known as The Ravenna Cosmography. That section records place-names of Britain during the Roman occupation. It was determined that the original source map was marked with measured lines of latitude and longitude. Apparently quadrants (most often two degrees by one degree) were specially delineated, suggesting the existence of detailed sectional maps. The Cosmography's author methodically recorded the cities, quadrant by quadrant, from western Cornwall through Scotland.
    As a matter of course, other sources of period place-names were examined. Primary among those were the Antonine Itineraries, Ptolemy's Geography, and the Notitia Dignitatum.

Preface and Observations on the cosmographer's method
The Ravenna Cosmography Overview of the British section, transcript of the Vatican Codex with links to place-names
The Antonine Itineraries Transcripts of the Itineraries with maps and links to place-names.
Ptolemy's Geography Greek transcripts, English translations, turning of Scotland
The Notitia Dignitatum Transcript with links to place-names
The Rudge Cup, the Amiens patera and the Staffordshire Cup Transcripts with links to place-names
Medieval orthography and errors of transmission
Bibliography & selected reading
Links to resources on the internet

What's new ?
    Comments on a work by R N Worth 1885, a belated review
    Iaccodurum (Lactodorum) Towcester (rev. 10.5.2006)
    Schnetz, Joseph    Untersuchungen zum Geographen von Ravenna (1919) 6.66Mb scanned copy as .pdf (Sorry, but too time-consuming to do OCR at this point. And yes, my copy was conveniently falling apart.)
    Where available, links to MagicMap and Scheduled Monument descriptions have been added.
    Index of Place-names page (under construction forever)
    Sarua, Saravus, and Sarviodunum
    Order in the South-West
    Order in the South
    Alauna silua, a wrongly divided Alaunus and Ilua
    Topsham in the Ravenna Cosmography
    Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) ed. William Smith, LLD
        [|] Link to The Perseus Project and a list of British and related place-names
    A proposed solution for the Landini-Tamese-Brinauis-Alauna sequence in the Ravenna Cosmography
    The other Vectis - further evidence from the name Penwith
    Lewis and Harris in the Geography and the Cosmography
    Senua and Senomagus
    Making sense of Ptolemy's Ratostathybios
    There never was a Pinnata Castra.
    The Roman name of Low Borrow Bridge