The design and implementation of ORBIS: The Stanford geospatial network model of the Roman world

Abstract

Elijah Meeks is the lead developer at the Center for Interdisciplinary Digital Research in the Stanford University Library and can be reached at emeeks<at>stanford.edu.C reating a network model of the Roman world presented an exciting opportunity to implement techniques for the study of the past that had only previously been seen in computational geography departments and as interactive toy demos. Such a visualization would allow scholars the capacity to explore how the Roman world may appear differently from different perspectives within the system, highlighting a sense of distance and space that was inherently topological and perspectival.The role of neogeography in disseminating radical cartography and GIS methods outside of academic geography departments cannot be overstated. Radical cartography refers to challenging the implied neutrality of geographic systems and functions, such as map projection. Neogeography, in contrast, refers to the use of geographic information systems (GIS) and map-making by journalists, artists and designers outside of the professional community of cartographers and the academic community of geographers. Both of these developments factored into the creation of ORBIS, a network model that represents the movement of goods and people in the Roman world.In 2011, Walter Scheidel, classics professor at Stanford University, was exposed to the concept of a distance cartogram via the work of designer Tom Carden [1]. Carden, well-entrenched in the field of information visualization and web mapping, had produced a geospatial information visualization of the London subway system that showed the routes using a traditional geographic projection but then distorted the geographic location of each subway stop and line to reflect the time taken from one stop to another. Cartograms are not new in academic geography circles, but the accessibility of this relatively simple information visualization was what allowed someone in Scheidel's position to understand and use such a representation, which was more in line with the manner in which Romans would have historically viewed space. C O N T E N T S N E X T P A G E > N E X T A R T I C L E > < P R E V I O U S P A G E EDITOR'S SUMMARYORBIS is a geospatial model of the Roman world representing the network of cities and travel routes that enabled movement across the Roman Empire. It is an example of neogeography, use of geographic information systems and mapmaking techniques by nonexperts. ORBIS was created using data from both primary sources and computational geography simulations about travel, wind and sea patterns, seasonal access, costs and other considerations to plot realistic transport networks. Through the development process, server infrastructure and user interface upgrades supported the volume of data, user needs and extended functionalities, such as revealing the most efficient routes between points. The result provides scholarly information on life and travel in the Roman era. ORBIS illustrates how network and hierarchical data can be used to vis...

From Hispalis to Ishbiliyya: The Ancient Port of Seville, from the Roman Empire to the End of the Islamic Period (45 BC - AD 1248)

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Modelling Roman Transport Infrastructure in Northern Italy

“…As transport infrastructure exists within spatial networks in real space, it readily lends itself towards reproduction in network graphs, where each edge represents a section of the route (such as a road, river, or sea-lane) and each node a junction between them. Network modelling has been applied extensively to the study of Roman transport at a variety of levels, ranging from the entirety of the Roman Empire, in the case of the Stamford ORBIS model (Meeks (2015); Scheidel (2014)), to that of a single city (Livarda and Orengo, 2015). Modelling has been used to identify the configuration of transport networks, highlighting important routes and junctions within the network alongside mapping areas of high and low connectivity.…”

Roman Studies and Digital Resources

“… 8 Scheidel 2013; Scheidel 2014; and relevant discussion at Meeks 2015: 20. See the topic ‘Research’ at for additional working papers.…”