On: Map of the Roman Empire Published Under CC 3.0 CC-...

[seszett]

The map uses today's terrain and coastlines though as far as I can see, which doesn't help understanding eg. lack of roads in former marshes.

[r0muald → seszett]

The "Antiquity à la carte" map has an ancient terrain layer by default : http://awmc.unc.edu/awmc/applications/alacarte/

[decafrules → seszett]

Actually, if you zoom in on the Netherlands - by far the most adapted (okay, also naturally changed) coastline since Roman times - you can see a thin blue line indicating the contemporary coastline.

[mcv → decafrules]

If you zoom in, it switches suddenly between modern and ancient coastlines, but even with the ancient coastlines, it still shows all the modern canals, polders and the distinctive grachtengordel of Amsterdam.

[maxerickson → seszett]

The about page discusses the data sources:

http://pelagios.dme.ait.ac.at/maps/greco-roman/about.html

And also links an article describing the map:

http://pelagios-project.blogspot.com/2012/09/a-digital-map-o...

[mcv → seszett]

It's a weird mix of modern and ancient map features. If you zoom in on Netherland, you can see it switch from modern coastlines to plausible ancient coastlines, but it still has the modern map of Amsterdam clearly visible.

It seems the creators may not have been aware just how much geography changed in the past 2000 years. Or maybe they just didn't care enough about the edges of the Empire.