310 ROMAN FRONTIER DEFENCES AND ROADS. [CHAP.
poorer class, and therefore travelling more slowly, than the state
officials, for whom in the first instance the Roman Itineraries were
intended1.
The Tabula Peutingeriana> which is our sole existing repre-
sentative of the Itineraria picta> received its name
from Conrad Peutinger, a scholar of the first half of
the sixteenth century, to whom it was bequeathed
by his friend Conrad Celtes, having been previously purchased by
him. This original is now in the imperial library at Vienna, but
it has several times been copied and edited, the most important
editions being that of Mannert (Leipzig, 1824), to which a valuable
introduction is prefixed, and that of Desjardins (Paris, 1869, &c.),
an elaborate and sumptuous work, which is still unfinished. This
map represents, not merely the Roman empire, but the world as
known to the Romans, extending from the mouth of the Ganges
towards the east to Spain on the west; in the latter direction,
however, it is imperfect, only the south-eastern corner of Britain
and a fraction of Spain appearing upon it. As it is 21 feet in
length by about one foot wide, thus forming a long strip, it neces-
sarily follows that the shapes of countries and other geographical
features are extravagantly distorted: the Mediterranean Sea, for
instance, assumes the form of a long canal. This however was a
matter of no importance to the author, whose primary object was
to trace the lines of roads throughout the empire, marking the
stations and the distances. For the same reason the natural
objects in each district, such as rivers, lakes and mountain chains,
though they ase not altogether neglected, are treated as subsidiary.
In order to distinguish the various kinds of places a number of
different symbols are introduced. Ordinary towns are marked by
small houses, while those of unusual importance, such as Aquileia,
Thessalonica and Nicomedia, are dignified with a circuit of walls
and towers. Great prominence is given in all three continents to
the watering-places, which are indicated by a bath-house with a
tank in the centre. Important public works are also conspicu-
ously delineated \ among these may be mentioned the dike which
1 On the subject of the Itineraries see Parthey and Finder's Introduction to
their edition of them; also Forbiger, ffandtmch der altcn Geography vol. I.
pp. 465-9.