Atlas — the interactive world
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geographic_feature
Close ✕The Mediterranean Sea (Mare Nostrum)
The empire's actual transport network. Bulk goods - grain, oil, wine, stone, amphorae - moved by ship because water transport was roughly an order of magnitude cheaper than road haulage per…
35.0, 18.0 · regional · entirely under Roman control from 30 BCE (annexation of Egypt) to the loss of Africa in 439 CE and the Arab conquests of the 7th century CE
On the world
- A place in: Roman Empire · 7 places
- Joined to: Alexandria — The Mediterranean Sea (Mare Nostrum) · 2 places
Lines mark links and orders the records assert; no path between any two places is recorded, and none is drawn.
Connections
- is connects via of Alexandria — Alexandria was the export terminal for Egyptian grain, the single largest bulk flow in the empire, moved entirely by ship.
- is feeds of The Roman Road Network — The road network is best modelled as feeders to and between ports rather than as an alternative to shipping; bulk overland haulage was prohibitively expensive, so roads carried people, messages and armies while the sea carried goods.
- is depends on of Rome — Rome could not feed itself from its hinterland. The grain that sustained a city of several hundred thousand or more came by sea from Africa and Egypt, which makes maritime control an existential requirement rather than a strategic preference.
1145 objects · 280 located (1 withheld pending verification) · 865 unlocated · Basemap: Natural Earth (public domain) · marks drawn only from sourced coordinates