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Orbis, the “Google Maps” dedicated to the streets of the Roman Empire

Orbis is a platform designed by Stanford University that calculates travel times and costs during the time of the Roman Empire

Published

June 12th, 2021

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Orbis, the "Google Maps" dedicated to the streets of the Roman Empire

A team from Stanford University, in the United States, created the Orbis, a platform that allows you to calculate travel times and costs during the Roman Empire.

How Orbis works

Orbis, a term that in Latin means “world”, is a type of Google Maps created in the times of the ancient Romans.

The platform allows simulate movements along the communication routes that were present around 200 AD, one of the periods of maximum splendor of the Roman Empire.

In graphics and operation, Orbis looks like Google Maps. When opening the platform, you can see on the left of the screen a box to enter the city of departure, destination and vehicle, while on the right is the map of the territories.

After entering your starting location and the one you want to go to, the route will be displayed on the map. All details, however, are found in the same way as they would be in Roman times, from the names of cities to means of transport, from the cost of travel to existing roads.

The map shows not only viable roads but also navigable rivers and sea routes. The platform suggests the shortest, fastest and cheapest route.

For a more accurate calculation, you can also enter the month of departure to understand precisely, based on the period, how long it would actually take to travel between the entered locations.

Orbis screen, the “Google Maps” dedicated to the streets of the Roman Empire

From Rome to Milan with Orbis

Currently, the trip between Milan and Rome can take one hour by plane, three and a half hours by train, and about six hours by car.

Using the Orbis platform to simulate a trip from Rome to Milan , we can figure out the time and costs required 1800 years ago.

According to Orbis, the fastest way The way to do this is by using a relay of horses.

The horses, covering a route of 623 km, could cover around 250 km per day and allowed them to reach Milan, or Mediolanum as it was called at the time, in just three days.

The cheapest way to make this trip was with a donkey, which took around 12 days to travel the 737 km from the capital to Milan. A cart pulled by oxen, on the other hand, could take up to fifty days to get from the capital to the city Lombard.