Roman News Isochrones
How many days a message needed to get from one city to the rest of the Empire. Pick a starting city, choose how fast the messenger travels, and tap any city to see the route.
Days after the message sets out. Band edges at 8, 16, 24 … days match the Roman market week, the nundinum. Grey land is off the network.
Checked against the sources
| Event | Recorded | Model |
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How the model works
Each city is a stop on a network of 239 roads and 46 sea lanes. The map takes the fastest combination from the starting city, then fills the land around each stop at cross-country pace.
- Road speed depends on the messenger: 74, 148 or 250 km a day. Alpine and other mountain roads take 35% longer, and 70% longer in winter.
- Ships average 140 km a day. Summer winds blow from the north-north-west, so voyages towards Egypt run up to 50% faster and the trip back takes about twice as long.
- Boarding a ship costs a wait in port: two days for an ordinary letter, half a day for a record run.
- In winter the open sea is closed, as Vegetius describes. Only short crossings stay open: the Channel, the Strait of Messina, Brundisium to Dyrrachium, Gibraltar and the Bosporus.
- Off the network, travel is 40% slower and stops 230 km from the nearest city.
The series Rome is set in 52–30 BC, before Augustus created the state courier service and before there were roads in Britain, on the Danube or in Dacia. News in Caesar's day moved more slowly and less predictably than this map shows.
For a research-grade model with real terrain and river transport, see Stanford's ORBIS.