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The Antonine Itinerary

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Summary

The Antonine Itinerary is a collection of 225 lists of stopping places along various Roman roads across the Roman Empire. The British routes are at the end of the land itinerary. It is likely that the collection was written over almost two centuries and was possibly put together for the Emperor Caracalla. Distances in the itinerary are measured in either miles or leuga, and it is thought to have been used for the collection of annona militaris, a tax of food and supplies. There are a large number of errors in the document, with the cause remaining unknown.

Q&As

What is the full Latin title of the Antonine Itinerary?
The full Latin title of the Antonine Itinerary is "Itinerarium Provinciarum Antoni(ni) Augusti".

What is the value of the Antonine Itinerary for Britain?
The value of the Antonine Itinerary for Britain is that it is one of a very few documents to have survived to modern times which provide detail of names and clues to location of Roman sites and the routes of roads.

What is the modern transcription of the Antonine Itinerary?
The modern transcription of the Antonine Itinerary is that of Otto Cuntz (Cuntz, 1929).

What is the proposed function of the Antonine Itinerary?
The proposed function of the Antonine Itinerary is that it is a collection of routes to be used for the collection of annona militaris, a tax of food and supplies originally imposed by Septimius Severus to provide for the Roman Army.

What are the two groups of errors in the Antonine Itinerary?
The two groups of errors in the Antonine Itinerary are errors of transmission, which are errors made by scribes when copying, and errors in the original work.

AI Comments

👍 This article provides a thorough and well-researched overview of the Antonine Itinerary and its significance for Roman roads in Britain.

👎 The article's explanation of the errors in the Itinerary is inconclusive and fails to provide a definitive answer.

AI Discussion

Me: It's about the Antonine Itinerary, which is a collection of 225 lists of stopping places along various Roman roads across the Roman Empire. It's especially important for learning about Roman Britain. It has a lot of detail about names and locations of Roman sites, and the routes of roads. There's a lot of debate over who wrote it, when it was written, and how accurate it is.

Friend: Interesting. What are some of the implications of this article?

Me: Well, the article highlights the importance of the Antonine Itinerary in helping us to understand more about Roman Britain. It also brings up the potential errors and omissions in the work, which may be due to copying errors or errors in the original. There's also debate over the function of the Itinerary, and whether it was meant to be used for the Cursus Publicus or another purpose. Finally, it brings up the potential for misunderstanding and loss of Latin grammar endings, which may account for some of the errors in the distances.

Action items

Research the Roman roads in Britain to gain a better understanding of the routes used in the Antonine Itinerary.
Analyze the discrepancies between the distances in the Antonine Itinerary and the actual distances of the Roman roads.
Compare the Antonine Itinerary to other ancient sources such as the Peutinger Table, the Ravenna Cosmography, Ptolemy's Geography, and the Notitia Dignitatum to gain a better understanding of the Roman Empire.

Technical terms

Gaul: An ancient region of Western Europe that included parts of modern-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany.
Iter: A Latin term meaning "journey" or "road." It is used to refer to the lists of stopping places along various Roman roads in the Roman Empire.
Mille Passus: A Latin term meaning "thousand paces," referring to the distances in between stopping places in the Roman Empire.
Leuga: A Gaulish League, equal to 1.5 Roman miles.
Stadium: A unit of measurement equal to an eighth of a mile.
Mensor Aedificiorum: A Latin term meaning "measurer of buildings," referring to a person responsible for measuring buildings in Rome.
Cursus Publicus: The Imperial postal service of the Roman Empire.
Annona Militaris: A tax of food and supplies imposed by Septimius Severus to provide for the Roman Army.
Accusative Case: A grammatical case used in Latin to indicate the direct object of a verb.