thumb|300px|Iter Britanniarum, displayed as a [[road map. The plotted routes and stations are approximations. The Antonine Wall and Hadrian's Wall are shown.]]

The Antonine Itinerary (, "Itinerary of the Emperor Antoninus") is an , a register of the stations and distances along various roads. Seemingly based on official documents, possibly in part from a survey carried out under Augustus, it describes the roads of the Roman Empire. Owing to the scarcity of other extant records of this type, it is a valuable historical record.

Publication history

Manuscripts

thumb|RBME R II 18 f.67r The first page of the oldest manuscript preserving the Itinerarium.

Almost nothing is known of its author or the conditions of its compilation. Numerous manuscripts survive, the eight oldest dating to some point between the 7th to 10th centuries after the onset of the Carolingian Renaissance. Despite the title seeming to ascribe the work to the patronage of the 2nd-century Antoninus Pius, all surviving editions seem to trace to an original towards the end of the reign of Diocletian in the early 4th century. The most likely imperial patron—if the work had one—would have been Caracalla.

!Siglum

!Library

!Shelfmark

!Date (Century)

!Folios

!Notes

!Source

|-

|P

|Escorialensis

|RBME R II 18

|7th-9th

|67r-82v

|Finishes half way through Gaul on f.82v.

|

|-

|D

|BnF

|Latin 7230A

|10th

|87r-97v

|

|

|-

|L

|Vindobonensis

|Cod. 181

|8th

|26r-60v

|Earliest to contain the Iter Britanniarum. The manuscript was corrected/updated by at least three hands, occurring at different places in the stemma codicum.

|

|-

|B

|BnF

|Latin 4807

|9th

|18-64

|British section 58-60.

|

|-

|β

|Vindobonensis

|Cod. 12825

|15th

|25v-76v

|

|

|-

|R

|Florentinus Laurentianus

|Plut.89 sup.67

|10th

|

|

|

|-

|C

|BnF

|Latin 4808

|12th

|

|

|

|}

Stemma

thumb|[[Textual criticism|Stemma codicum of the Antonine Itinerary. ]]

There are many manuscripts preserving the textual tradition of the Antonine Itinerary. For their edition of 1848 Parthey and Pinder focused his work on the critical edition to just 7 manuscripts: P, D, L, B, β, R and C. He considered manuscripts P and D to be the most reliable and upon which was based the text of the critical edition. Manuscript L was revised on at least 3 occasions by 3 different hands with each placing differently in the stemma; this was used as the basis for the critical text for sections missing from P and D. Despite being 600 years apart, B and β are considered sister manuscripts. R and C are sisters from the most recent recension used by Cuntz.

Of Cuntz' critical edition, only manuscripts L, B, β, R and C preserve the Iter Britanniarum. followed by a translation with a possible (but not necessarily authoritative) name for the modern sites. A transcriber omitted an entry, so that the total number of paces did not equal the sum of paces between locations.

{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"

|+ Iter XIII (Itinerary 13)

|-

! scope="col" rowspan="2" | Latin ablative

! scope="col" rowspan="2" | Translated possible site name

! scope="col" colspan="3" | Distance

|-

! scope="col" | Roman (mile)

! scope="col" | Metric (km)

! scope="col" | English (mile)

|-

! Item ab Isca Calleva mpm cviiii sic

! A route from Isca Silurum to Calleva Atrebatum thus

!align="center"| 109

!align="center"| 161

!align="center"| 100

|-

| Burrio mpm viii

| Usk, Monmouthshire

|align="center"| 8

|align="center"| 12

|align="center"| 7.5

|-

| Blestio mpm xi

| Monmouth, Monmouthshire

|align="center"| 11

|align="center"| 16

|align="center"| 10

|-

| Ariconio mpm xi

| Bury Hill, Weston under Penyard, Herefordshire

|align="center"| 11

|align="center"| 16

|align="center"| 10

|-

| Clevo mpm xv

| Gloucester, Gloucestershire

|align="center"| 15

|align="center"| 22

|align="center"| 14

|-

| (no entry - mpm xx)

| perhaps Corinium Dobunnorum at modern Cirencester, Gloucestershire

|align="center"|(20)

|align="center"|(30)

|align="center"|(18.5)

|-

| Durocornovio mpm xiiii

| perhaps Wanborough, Wiltshire

|align="center"| 14

|align="center"| 21

|align="center"| 13

|-

| Spinis mpm xv

| Speen, Berkshire

|align="center"| 15

|align="center"| 22

|align="center"| 14

|-

| Calleva mpm xv

| Silchester, Hampshire

|align="center"| 15

|align="center"| 22

|align="center"| 14

|}

Below are the original Latin names for sites along route 14, followed by a translation with a possible (but not necessarily authoritative) name for the modern sites. as General Roy and his successors believed it to be a legitimate source of information, on a par with the Antonine Itineraries. While the document is no longer cited since its authenticity became indefensible, its data has not been systematically removed from past and present works.

Some authors, such as Thomas Reynolds, without challenging the authenticity of the forgery, took care to note its discrepancies and challenge the quality of its information. This was not always so, even after the forgery was debunked.

Gonzalo Arias (died 2008) proposed that some of the distance anomalies in the British section of the Antonine Itinerary resulted from the loss of Latin grammatical endings, as these had marked junctions heading towards places, as distinct from the places themselves. However, Arias may not have taken account of earlier work indicating that distances were measured between the edges of administrative areas of named settlements as opposed to centre-to-centre, thereby explaining supposed distance shortfalls and providing additional useful data on the approximate sizes of such areas.

Hispania

thumb|300px|Main Roman roads in Hispania

thumb|300px|Roads listed on the Itinerary

There are 34 routes in the itinerary for the provinces of Hispania.

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! Route !! Start !! End !! Distance (Roman miles)

|-

| 1|| Mediolanum (Milan)|| Legio VII Gemina (León) || 1257

|-

| 2|| Arelate (Arles) || Castulo || 898

|-

| 3|| Corduba (Córdoba) || Castulo || 99

|-

| 4|| Corduba|| Castulo || 78

|-

| 5|| Castulo || Malaca (Málaga) || 291

|-

| 6|| Malaca|| Gades (Cádiz) || 145

|-

| 7|| Gades || Corduba|| 294

|-

| 8|| Hispalis (Seville) || Corduba || 94

|-

| 9|| Hispalis || Italica || 6

|-

| 10|| Hispalis || Emerita (Mérida)|| 162

|-

| 11|| Corduba || Emerita || 144

|-

| 12|| Olisipo (Lisbon)|| Emerita || 161

|-

| 13|| Salacia (Alcácer) || Ossonoba (Faro) || 16

|-

| 14|| Olisipo || Emerita || 145

|-

| 15|| Olisipo || Emerita || 220

|-

| 16|| Olisipo || Bracara (Braga) || 244

|-

| 17|| Bracara || Asturica (Astorga)|| 247

|-

| 18|| Bracara || Asturica || 215

|-

| 19|| Bracara || Asturica || 299

|-

| 20|| Bracara || Asturica || 207

|-

| 21|| Esuris (Castro Marim) || Pax Julia || 267

|-

| 22|| Esuris || Pax Julia || 76

|-

| 23|| Mouth of the Ana (Guadiana) || Emerita || 313

|-

| 24|| Emerita || Caesaraugusta (Zaragoza) || 632

|-

| 25|| Emerita || Caesaraugusta || 348

|-

| 26|| Asturica || Caesaraugusta || 497

|-

| 27|| Asturica || Caesaraugusta || 301

|-

| 28|| Turiaso (Tarazona) || Caesaraugusta || 56

|-

| 29|| Emerita || Caesaraugusta || 458

|-

| 30|| Laminium (Fuenllana) || Toletum (Toledo)|| 95

|-

| 31|| Laminium|| Toletum || 249

|-

| 32|| Asturica || Tarraco (Tarragona)|| 482

|-

| 33|| Caesaraugusta || Benearnum (Lescar) || 112

|-

| 34|| Asturica || Burdigala (Bordeaux) || 421

|-

|}

See also

  • Roman units
  • Laminium
  • Via XXXI
  • Caesaraugusta
  • Peutinger Table
  • Ptolemy's Geography
  • Ravenna Cosmography

References

Citations

Bibliography

  • The standard modern edition of the Itinerary is in O. Cuntz, Itineraria Romana, vol. 1: Itineraria Antonini Augusti et Burdigalense (Leipzig 1929), nos, 175 (terrestrial), 7685 (maritime).
  • The first edition was by Geoffroy Troy:
  • Bernd Löhberg, Das 'Itinerarium provinciarum Antonini Augusti' (2006)
  • .
  • The Antonine Itinerary: Iter Britanniarum - The British Section
  • Analysis of the Itinerary
  • Itinerarium Antonini Augusti (the Balkanic roads) at SOLTDM.COM
  • Roman Roads in Britain
  • Complete map of the Antonine Itinerary
  • Omnes Viae - data from the Peutinger Table and Antonine Itinerary with digitial path finding.
  • Vici.org - CC ancient map wiki that shows Roman roads from the Antonine Itinerary and Peutinger table.
  • Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire (DARE) - University of Gothenburg GIS project that shows Roman roads and other data.