this post was submitted on 26 May 2024
388 points (97.1% liked)
Map Enthusiasts
3540 readers
732 users here now
For the map enthused!
Rules:
-
post relevant content: interesting, informative, and/or pretty maps
-
be nice
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
They didn't like the cold, huh?
They really didn't. They referred to the northern reaches that they didn't visit, mostly Greenland as ultima thule.
The modern interpretations have included Orkney, Shetland, Northern Scotland, the island of Saaremaa (Ösel) in Estonia, and the Norwegian island of Smøla.
By the Late Middle Ages and the early modern period, the Greco-Roman Thule was often identified with the real Iceland or Greenland. Sometimes Ultima Thule was a Latin name for Greenland, when Thule was used for Iceland. By the late 19th century, however, Thule was frequently identified with Norway.[6][7]
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thule
But yeah they were aware of things beyond the limits of their maps. So idk id this is more accurately "roughly around the limits of roman maps" instead of "the area the Roman empire ruled".
Tacitus for instance talks about the Fenni and the romans definitely visited and knew the Baltic Sea, but there probably wasn't a whole lot going on around 100AD that would've been of that much interest to the romans. Fishing and relatively poor trading (by Roman standards).
Right, I forget that the concept of Thule changed over time.
And yeah, they were definitely aware of the world outside of their own cartography. I believe there were definitely accounts of them attempting to journey on the Baltic Sea, but I don't recall it ending well.
Similarly they also were well aware of the Chinese. It's disputed but Roman ambassadors or merchants made it to China at one point. I believe in 166 BCE a crew went over there, but unfortunately they likely returned home at a troubling time when the Antonine Plague was spreading.
Might be wrong about some details though.
Going from Italy to Russia or the Himalayans is like going from Florida to Alaska, except that the Mediterranean is even more beautiful.
There are some pretty shots of Miami.