Answer to Map #109
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Answer: This week’s map was a dot map depicting the birthplaces of Roman emperors in red dots. The blue dots in the bonus map represent cities with modern names that are derived from the names of Roman emperors.
The Roman Empire covered a wide territorial expanse, reaching its peak under the emperor Trajan in the 2nd century CE. The range of the dots on the map corresponds fairly well to the empire’s extent. Despite this wide range, however, the majority of the Roman emperors were born in or around Rome. Most of the geographical variety was achieved later in the empire’s history. The emperor Claudius, hailing from ancient Lugdunum (modern Lyon, France) was the first emperor born outside of present-day Italy. Septimius Severus, who came from Leptis Magna in modern Libya, was the first emperor born outside of Europe. There were a great many emperors who hailed from the Balkan Peninsula, known collectively as the “Illyrian Emperors” after the ancient Roman region of Illyricum. These figures came to power during a long period of civil strife in the 3rd century CE and mostly came to prominence via the Roman army.
There were a number of complicating factors in making this map. First, defining an “emperor” is not a straightforward task, since there were many co-emperors, usurpers, and pretenders who had questionable claims to rule. Second, the exact birthplaces of some emperors are unknown. Sometimes there is no information at all, and sometimes only a province is mentioned in historical sources. Our map also depends on the quality of the historical sources for a given period, which can also be called into question. Given all of these constraints, there are some dots that are either arbitrarily placed or missing altogether when there was no reliable data. Finally, the Roman Empire split into Eastern and Western halves, and this map only depicts emperors of the Western half.
This map also contains one dot for a not-quite-emperor: Julius Caesar, who was not considered an emperor himself, but who was certainly in the same class of ruler as the emperors who followed him. Following the death of Julius Caesar, the word “Caesar” came to refer to the office of the emperor generally. Many words for ruler, such as “Kaiser” in German and “Tsar” in Russian were derived from the Latin word “Caesar,” and many modern place names come from the word “Caesar” as well.
The cities that take their name from “Caesar” or from other emperors are depicted in blue dots, and the hint for the blue dots connects the modern cities with the birthplaces of their corresponding namesake emperors. Dallas included cities with current populations over 5,000. Among the notable cities on the map are Tiberias, Israel (named for the Roman emperor Tiberius); Zaragoza, Spain (formerly Caesaraugusta); and Trier, Germany (formerly Augusta Treverorum).
Many of the blue dots come from the names of Roman colonies or camps. There are some points of debate about whether cities which already existing but were re-founded or re-named by the Romans should be included in the list of blue dots, so that’s where there are some omissions of dots you might have expected. This map should list most of the possibilities, however, and each blue dot has an interesting etymological story worth pursuing!
Thanks very much to Dallas for contributing this write-up as well as the maps.
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