Have denarii, will travel: time and cost of travel in Ancient Rome

The privilege of transporting readers to ancient worlds rests uniquely in the quill of the historical fiction writer. If readers can be immersed in the fictional world by escaping reality, the story comes alive for them. 

To create this engaging experience for readers, a writer of historical fiction spends considerable effort in research to create authentic settings as backdrops, then populates them with original characters who will spin interesting and devious plots, organic to their world. Although it is acceptable to take liberties with historical facts in favour of enriching the story (because story trumps everything), some details beg to be penned down accurately. This blogpost highlights the importance of determining time and cost of travel in Ancient Rome and how they affect characters and the plot.

How much time would it take to travel from Rome to Brindisi along via Appia by ox cart? How many denarii does it cost for a merchant to transport grain from Alexandria to Rome by ship? 

Any guesses? Enter ORBIS. Developed by W. Scheidel and E. Meeks at Stanford University, ORBIS contains interactive maps and distance cartograms that answer these very questions. According to the website “Conventional maps that represent this world as it appears from space signally fail to capture the severe environmental constraints that governed the flows of people, goods and information. Cost, rather than distance, is the principle determinant of connectivity.”  Another interesting fact: the website uses the ancient names of places - Roma for Rome and Londinium for London. What is the ancient town of Constantinopolis called now? 

The main attraction of this website is the ‘Mapping ORBIS’ section, which allows users to simulate historical travel in ancient Rome. Want to generate routes between places in Ancient Rome (like using Google maps in a contemporary setting)?  Mapping ORBIS is the place for it. 

Here, one can determine the time taken to travel between point A and point B, and cost involved by using different modes of transportation, on different network modes, and in different seasons. Combinations of suitable variables will narrow down the search according to the needs of our stories. 

Shall we try it out?

Let’s say we want to compare routes from Roma to Alexandria during summer and winter months. Shifting wind patterns during the two seasons and variations in sea conditions mandated that the route be different during each season, as shown below. During summer, ships travelled along the coast of Italy to reach Roma (purple), while in the winter months (Dec - Mar) they had to loop around Sicily and then travel north towards Roma (white).

Another way to depict these results is in a tabular form showing the cost, travel time and distances on the two routes between Roma and Alexandria. Writers can then export this table to Google Earth and Excel/ Numbers spreadsheets.

How can we use this information about routes used in different months to brainstorm interesting plot points? Here's an example:

In June 102 AD, the protagonist has to relay an important message from the Roman Senate to Egypt. For this, he sneaks incognito into a ship leaving for Alexandria. But soon he learns that the villain is patrolling the seas along the coast of Italy—along the route the ship would take during summer. What could he do then? Getting caught would spell doom for his mission. Much is at stake on the message getting across. So he decides to take charge of the ship and direct its course to loop it around Sicily—along the winter route, where no sane sailor would stray in summer. Naturally, things cannot possibly go right so easily as far as protagonists are concerned. Just when he was about to implement his plan, he discovers that the ship’s crew were pirates. What now?

***

In ancient Rome, the fastest route may not be the shortest and the shortest one may not be the cheapest. Let’s travel west this time, from Roma to Londinium. The shortest route (yellow) varies significantly from the cheapest route (green) and the fastest one (purple). 

The fastest routes were determined by the mode of transportation.  The Romans used a system of horse relay in which fresh, well-fed horses were available at intervals. Horse relay proved to be the fastest mode of transportation, while travelling on ox-carts or on foot were slower options. Sea and river routes provided the cheapest routes, in general. There were differences in cost if one travelled by river, by open sea or along the coast. Similarly, on land, the cost would vary while travelling by donkey, or wagon, or by carriage.

If this sounds confusing, the website contains videos explaining how to map routes under the ‘Using ORBIS’ tab. Or you can simply have fun punching in different variables and letting ORBIS generate maps for you. This model provides an intuitive interface. Try it out for yourselves. 

Brilliant plots can be set into motion and character motivations influenced by experimenting with variations in route, cost, speed of travel, mode of transportation, distance, time, and season. 

Which route should the spy use from Roma to Londinium while avoiding the rebel army encamped in Avaricum (Gaul) and still reach his destination in forty-five days?

What mode of transport should the heroine use when fleeing Roma with 300 denarii in her purse to meet her father in Brundisium, dying of tuberculosis? Will she see him alive?

As conspirators gather around him, can the Consul arrange for the shipment of grain to arrive in Roma before Lupercalia and maintain his power in the Senate?

These are real questions that historical fiction writers grapple with. Now with the interactive maps provided by ORBIS, these questions can be answered and accurate data incorporated into our stories. I hope historical fiction writers find this website a useful resource, and have fun at the same time.

Happy hunting!

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~ A David Singh