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ssss1 Near Eastern section from the Peutinger Table. Freely downloadable at https://www.cambridge.org/us/talbert/index.html, Map B, TP2000seg9 (detail).

The late-Roman itineraries show a significant continuity in the conception of geographia from the Hellenistic bematists, where the landscape of the Near East is made comprehensible by marking places and stations along a web of routes (cf. Parker 2001: 67; Salway 2001: 26). The Peutinger Table seems to fit in this mode, since it presents a thorough map of the same itineraries, yet its geographical form is baffling unless we understand how its original presentation was intended to impress upon viewers the centrality of Rome, the cohesion and civilized nature of the empire, and its Tetrarchic rulers’ detailed knowledge of their domains (Talbert 2010: 147–152). Its predecessor in purpose and form – if not cartographic projection – was Agrippa’s world map (Nicolet 1991: 102–103). Though we now have only later visualizations of Ptolemy’s Guide to Drawing the World, we do know that ancient geographers produced maps and debated for many centuries over how best to project the globe as a geometrical and political entity, the philosophical side to geography which is necessary to fully contextualize the sources for the Near East.