Roman Empire Netflix Map
score:2
The map is fictional, based on an anachronistic mix of Roman territories and supposedly some trade routes.
The colouring of Armenia and Mesopotamia hints at Trajan's time. However, at this same time, Northwest Africa was under Roman control and it is not coloured. Northwest Africa was only not under Roman control before the 2nd century AD and during the Western's half's collapse (despite being briefly reacquired by the Eastern half during the Middle Ages). The map is therefore fictional as before the 2nd century AD Armenia was not under Roman control.
Other inconsistencies are Southern Hispania not coloured despite being conquered much before Northern Spain, the absence of Sardinia and Consirca (conquered during the war against Phoenicians, though it could have been a graphical oversight), and the absence of Northern Gallia.
The string going into Russia also does not match any real life fact, only loosely resembling a mix of the Amber Road, which went to the Baltics, not Russia, and the supposed Steppe Road, which connected China to Eastern Europe.
Upvote:2
About those branching lines, I see 3 possibilities
- Trade Routes
There were certainly land trade routes running between the Roman Empire and the far east. However, most depictions of "the Silk Road" show it running South of the Caspian Sea, with an occasional one wrapping over its north shore, whereas both of these lines run far North of it. What trade there was coming from the northeast (eastern Europe) appears to have been largely trading in locally-collected slaves.
There were some split/join in the route, somewhat like depicted in the map, but it was going both ways around the first the Aral Sea, then the Taklamakan Desert, just north of Tibet. Both are considerably south and east of the split on the map.
So if trade routes was the concept, its very representational, and nowhere near geographically accurate.
- Barbarian invasion routes
This one would make a bit more representational sense, as those lines are close-ish to the invasion routes taken into the empire by the Huns and Goths. The problem here is it doesn't make much sense in the context of that show, as all three seasons happened centuries before that period (the map says 100AD, but it should be more like 300).
So I think this theory is unlikely.
- Artistic Bloodspatter
As suggested by multiple people (particularly justCal in the comments yesterday), another possibility is that this was just an artistic creation of graphic designers who had no real concern for history, but just wanted to depict Rome as a giant bloodspatter on a map. In this case, those lines are just meant to be rivulets of blood, not any serious geographical item.
This theory would make the most sense if that map were generated for the purposes of promoting Season 1, which has the sanguine title of "Commodus: Reign of Blood". Sadly, I've been unable to dig up any further contextual information on this map, so its tough to say.
Upvote:4
Assuming that the red area indicates the extent of the empire, we can look for a period that fits. To start with, it would appear to be dated before the reign of Claudius or during the final years of the Western Empire, as Britain is not colored.
Oddly, neither are Corsica nor Sardinia colored, and they were acquired by Rome during Republican days (Corsica at the end of the second Punic War and Sardinia a generation earlier).
So far, the map is either real early or real late. But real early can be ruled out by the extensive red in the East which Rome didn't pick up until centuries after those those islands.
And those two lines trailing off into Siberia belong to no era of the Roman Empire at all! (Nor do they match any silk roads that actually existed -- not that Rome ever controlled more than the western ends of any real Silk Road, anyway.)
As the OP noted, the state of Africa is hard to fit into any era.
Finally, the map seems to give Rome some unlikely possessions in the Middle East.
So, the days of the Western Empire are ruled out. What about the Eastern Empire, say under Justinian? That, too, is ruled out by the extensive holdings in Gaul.
The map appears to be partly imaginary or rather careless. (I'm betting on the latter...)
More post
- 📝 How does a commander estimate enemy's losses?
- 📝 What was the rate of premarital conceptions in England from 1850 to 1890?
- 📝 As far as Themistocles's journey after his exile is concerned why do modern historians conclude that Plutarch meant Thasos instead of Naxos?
- 📝 Why did non prosecuted craftsmen go to the new world in the Roanoke era?
- 📝 Why are there 37 numbers on European roulette wheels?
- 📝 What were the logistics of whaling in the 1800s?
- 📝 Which submarine was invented first?
- 📝 Which were the (militarily) strongest countries of the Holy Roman Empire?
- 📝 Why conceal the innocence of Alfred Dreyfus?
- 📝 What evidence is there of the vision aids people used before the invention of eyeglasses in about 1286?
- 📝 How much tax did Romans pay?
- 📝 Was the name "William the Conqueror" (or its translation) actually used in William's lifetime?
- 📝 Is there any evidence to support the claim that Richard Burton told John Speke he would return home via Jerusalem after their Nile Quest?
- 📝 Why didn't every nation commit genocides against every other nation when they conquered land?
- 📝 Were there punishments in the Roman Empire for not believing in the official religion?
- 📝 Is there a student of Arnold J Toynbee with an opinion about the state and fate of Western Civilization?
- 📝 Who inherited from the pre- World War II German states?
- 📝 How many Samurai killed themselves?
- 📝 How "excellent" were relations between American soldiers and the Vietnamese people?
- 📝 Did Belgian detectives wear special shoes in 1939?
- 📝 Were taiko drums used to determine village sizes?
- 📝 What is the difference between "liege-vassal" and "simple vassal"?
- 📝 Did steamboats on the Mississippi have individual cabins?
- 📝 Did Roman Britannia leave any impacts on English?
- 📝 What was typical agricultural produce in Rome or Greece roundabout 2000-3000ya?
- 📝 What was normal attire for Hindu kings in the 15th century?
- 📝 How many naval mines were cleared for D-Day?
- 📝 Can anyone help identify the country, rank, and unit this WWI uniform is from?
- 📝 Is there any record of the Ebionites outside of the antiheretical polemics of the church fathers?
- 📝 What is the earliest mention of space travel?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Roman Empire Netflix Map
- 📝 Why did the Western Roman Empire collapse but not the Eastern Roman Empire?
- 📝 When did the Roman Empire fall according to contemporaries?
- 📝 Why was the Roman Empire considered an empire rather than a kingdom (again)?
- 📝 What role did the Eastern Roman Empire play in the fall of the Western Roman Empire?
- 📝 Was the Roman Empire based on a 'plunder economy'?
- 📝 Did the Roman Empire have penal colonies?
- 📝 When did the Holy Roman Empire collapse?
- 📝 Were there punishments in the Roman Empire for not believing in the official religion?
- 📝 Where were the western legions when the Roman empire fell?
- 📝 Did the Roman Empire extend as far north as the Romans could grow wine?
- 📝 What was the northernmost region/city in the Roman Empire that spoke Greek as the native language?
- 📝 Internal customs in the Roman Empire
- 📝 Gap between poor and rich in the Roman Empire
- 📝 What Roman Republican legal structures lasted into the Empire and which ones didn't?
- 📝 How were the borders of the Holy Roman Empire established?
- 📝 What were the insignia of the Western Roman Empire and what happened to them?
- 📝 Why did the Sassanid and the Eastern Roman Empire fail to make a lasting peace?
- 📝 What kinds of goods were commonly smuggled in the Roman Empire up to the end of the 3rd century AD?
- 📝 What happened to copies of Holy Lance (Holy Roman Empire regalia)?
- 📝 Why was the government expenditures of the Roman Empire very low compared to modern governments?
- 📝 State budget spending of Roman Empire
- 📝 What would slaves in the Roman Empire call their masters?
- 📝 How did agricultural productivity change in Italy with the fall of the Roman Empire and through the early Middle Ages?
- 📝 Were the Roman Empire provinces Alpes Poeninae and Alpes Graiae different provinces or the same?
- 📝 Are the quantities of gold that the Roman Empire looted and mined known?
- 📝 Manichaeism almost becoming state religion of Roman Empire
- 📝 Did Roman Empire elite believe in their gods?
- 📝 Did the Byzantine Empire use Roman numerals?
- 📝 Was there ever support for any persons outside of the empire to be elected Holy Roman Emperor?