Cartographica Neerlandica Map Text for Ortelius Map No. 229


Text from the 1624 Latin Parergon edition, which is also used in the 1641 Spanish edition:

(sheet 3, right text page, column 1, a continuation of the Ort 228 text:)

229.1. {1624L/1641S{other settlements, even those, in my opinion, are public roads. I think that on the sheets not one single non-consular road, or, which is the same, not one non-military road has been drawn. I have established that these roads were paved in three different manners: they were covered with stones, or with pebbles, or with assembled earthen sods. Digest[arum] Lib[er] 43.tit.11.line 1. It is not allowed to make a road wider, nor longer, under the pretext of repair. He may either strew pebbles on an earthen road, or cover a road with stones where there used to be sods, or replace stones with sods. Yet, it seems that Isidorus connects a sods road with one of stones, when he says that an Agger is a road of average elevation, covered with assembled stones, called after agger which means heap, and which historians call a military road.
229.2. Undoubtedly, public roads are therefore aggers. Ammianus Marcellinus [says in] book 19: With a passable agger or a bridge placed above it, the area has been levelled. And in book 21, dealing with Iulianus: Impatient to wait, he travelled on public aggers, and since no one resisted him, he subdued the Succi. Rulers used to receive roads attributed to them, and Suetonius (chapter 37) confirms that Augustus established this practice. But Pomponius in his second book of About the origin of the Law attributes the origin of this practice to earlier times. I have established that individual roads were attributed to individual rulers, as shows from many [inscriptions in] stones.
229.3. Alternatively, one man took care of a multitude of roads. This is proved by a marble slate remaining in Auximum, which says that C[aius] Oppius, CVR[ATOR]. VIAR[VM]. CLODIĘ.ANNIĘ.CASSIĘ.CIMINĘ. TRIVM.TRAIANARVM.ET.AMERINĘ [i.e.] that he was attendant of the Clodian, Annian etc. roads. They were maintained by subcontractors, as Siculus Flaccus has written. Prisoners have also been condemned to carry out such maintenance, as you can read in Caius by Suetonius, chapter 27. They were marked by milestones, on which the number of miles was written, deriving their name from this. In an ancient inscription:
[sheet 3, column 2]
229.4. Milestones repaired. Even the emperor's name might be added, because they had commanded the repair. Coins of Augustus, ornated with arches, four-in-hands and insignia are similar examples: QVOD.VIĘ.MVN[ITĘ].SVNT, because roads have been maintained. Sidonius writes in his Propempt[ikon]:
Do not step on the Agger [elevated road]
From the surface of which, on antique tablets
Cęsars name flourishes.
229.5. Much is to be found in many writers concerning this view, and numerous stone tablets have survived as infallible witnesses. They provided the numeric information about distances which was entered in itineraries, and the same numbers can be found back in their mapsheets. It is only rarely that our numbers did not match those from the Itinerary of Antoninus, which is as it should be. For [remaining] mismatches I do not simply blame the negligence of the copyist. Unreliable as he may have been, mistakes can occur for a variety of reasons. Time itself is a cause of change. Some routes have been merged, when new shortcuts are found. Others change when detours become necessary. Next to that, Antoninus numbers always refer to the last camp.
229.6. Possibly, this is not consistent throughout the sheets, for I have myself observed milestones referring to the distance of some important city at a distance of one hundred miles or more, whereas intermediate cities of less importance are ignored. An example is a milestone in the vicinity of Oenipons [Innsbruck], on which Severus and his sons are inscribed. The distance to Augusta Vindelicorum [Augsburg], which is far away from there, is mentioned on these stones, [e.g.]: ROADS AND BRIDGES REPAIRED, FROM AUGUSTA ONE HUNDRED AND TEN MILES. And whatever is listed in a book in a fixed order, may on the mapsheets refer to the route to come or to the route already covered, for travelling in either direction is possible. The fact that at some camps two numbers have been entered suggests that they refer to different routes.
[left text page, first column]
229.7. For those who after all explanations still find what has been said very obscure and unworkable, [I want to say that] I have taken it upon me to oracle about matters which are so uncertain that my exertions may be judged as ridiculous. This is an honour which I gladly leave to others.
229.8. Judgment of the same Velserus, under a different name, about the same map, after he had obtained the whole series.
229.9. We present the map here, of which Marcus Velserus, Seven-man of the Republic of Augst, published the few sheets then available, under great applause from those who have literature on this subject close to their hearts. He then promised the entire series, if he could lay his hands on the manuscript; this could nowhere be found and it was feared that it had disappeared. But good fortune was benevolent to him, and Velserus has now made good on his promise. This message uplifted Abraham Ortelius, because what he had tried to achieve for more than twenty years in all sorts of ways, namely to publish it, now became his achievable task.
229.10. And it was a good choice that the other people interested in this left this task to this suitable candidate. Velserus was of the opinion that that the trust he had achieved with the public was best served if Ortelius was to bring the task of publishing them to completion, and therefore Ortelius was the first to be offered this map. After that, this man, in spite of his being over seventy years of age, who had more will power and more dedication than physical health, has deceased, while busy finishing this task.
229.11. Dying, commemorating his loved ones [quote from Ovidius' exile poetry], he left it in his will to his old friend Ioannes Moretus, who took it upon himself to finalise it on account of his dedication to the deceased. Velserus commented in a preface which he offered us to make, about its maker, antiquity, use and other matters concerning this map. To this we add: [second column]:
229.12. Its maker was a Christian. This appears clearly from the name of Saint Peter, and from what is related about Mozes and the Israelites. The size of the land the map represented could at the time not be assessed, except for the Western part of the Roman empire. It can now be determined that it covers more, namely the entire world as it was then known with certainty, depicting as it does the area from the very west to the very east, that is, between the pillars of Hercules and the altars of Alexander. And indeed, everything is represented on it, except what is outside the pillars: small parts are lacking of Britannia, Aquitania, Spain and Africa. All around lies the sea once called the Atlantic. We find information about maps for the purpose of travelling in the third book chapter six of Vegetius, which are certainly worth reading, and it seems probable that the History of Provinces as reported by P. Victor in the area of the Basilica Antoniana in the area of Flaminia is based on this.
229.13. As regards the nature of paving the roads, see Galenus' Methods, Book 9, Chapter 8. By way of explanation: the attitude of Velserus deserves to be continued, but this enterprise is difficult and takes long, and cannot be achieved by the industry of one single person. He cannot alone assume the task so eagerly awaited by the learned. Further, if this is of any importance: the manuscript is on parchment, consisting of carefully joined sheets, each of which is about one Augster foot wide, and the whole is about twenty-two feet long.
229.14. It seems that the designer found it most convenient to make it in these proportions. The letters used are written after the manner of the Longobardians, formed as they are with great effort. The designer uses Roman script. For the rest he makes a faithful representation, uncorrupted and in its entirety. He never allows himself to deviate, and never allows himself to remove the numerous and obvious mistakes occurring on the map, and never strays from his example. Nor of his own initiative, nor on the basis of existing knowledge, but simply by straining his eyes, [has he achieved this result]}1624L}. (Text to be continued on the last sheet, Ort 230).

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