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Mapping Ancient Rome

theamericanconservative.com

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Re: Mapping Ancient Rome

#31

Post by jaclaz »

>In fact, the editor describes the Atlas as a virtual museum of the city (which has no brick-and-mortar institution devoted to its ancient topography).

Just in case: https://www.romereborn.org/

The actual brick and mortar museum (and model) does exist however: http://www.museociviltaromana.it/

http://www.museociviltaromana.it/it/collezioni/percorsi_per_...

Since the model was realized between 1933 and 1955 it may be somehow less accurate or missing some later discoveries/whatever, still it remains impressive, here is a short video that doesn't actually provide a sense of its size and detail:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jMEN3zOQ5E

Re: Mapping Ancient Rome

#32

Post by jdpedrie »

tryitnow wrote: post #21
SamBam wrote: post #18

I don't know whether I'm reading into this with a bias given that it's published in The American Conservative, but the conclusion of the article definitely reads as an homage to when "Western Civilization" was nice and homogeneous, and everyone could trace its lineage back to Rome. > The importance of classical Rome to the conscious and unconscious customs of later Western urbanism cannot be overstated. Today, as cul…

My suspicion is that they had to find some ideological justification for writing about this cool project in a conservative magazine, so they probably just shoehorned those lines in there. I don't think this is a bad thing. The more conservatives are exposed to ideas and cultures that are radically at odds with contemporary conservative mores, the more likely these conservatives are to open their minds. And make no mi…

Perhaps more exposure to the intellectual tradition of conservatism would likewise help free you from, to borrow a phrase, "the provincial ideas" about your political opponents that you seem to have been "inclined to inherit from [your] immediate cultural background. "

Re: Mapping Ancient Rome

#33

Post by pugworthy »

orliesaurus wrote: post #25

Off-topic but somewhat relevant: When I was in college (ca. 2009) I worked on a project whose aim was mapping ancient Rome in 3-D so that students could explore the city as if they were living in it. We were a team of three including our supervisor who was the expert in ancient Rome and we managed to recreate about 9000 buildings including temples in points of interest. Most recently I have discovered [0] that one ve…

I worked with that data on an ill-fated educational game a bit before that time...

Re: Mapping Ancient Rome

#34

Post by wnissen »

Lots of good Roman mapping resources previously on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8146055

I personally really enjoyed http://orbis.stanford.edu/ which maps between cities, even telling you how many dinarii it would have cost via various methods. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a layer with modern city names, so you have to know that, e.g., Budapest was Aquincum in Roman times.

Re: Mapping Ancient Rome

#35

Post by efa »

TomMarius wrote: post #16
efa wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>forcing people to not progress What?

Sorry, I am not native speaker. I meant that they force people (e.g. With laws) to stop making progress.

I wasn't commenting on your English. I just thought it was strange to describe conservatives this way. In the US, true conservatives believe in smaller governments and less laws (more individual freedom). So I'm not sure how conservatism can stop individuals making progress.

Re: Mapping Ancient Rome

#37

Post by madhadron »

PorterDuff wrote: post #22

The book is a bit expensive, although I'd like to have a copy. Given the turn that modern politics has taken, I guess all that matters was this sentence: "Today, as cultures cross-pollinate, and as technologies topple timeless ways of living, it is an open question whether the familiarity of Rome’s ancient forms will be felt much by those who live in the future, beyond the next horizon." It's not a bad question reall…

> I doubt I'll live long enough to see the results of states that knock out the underpinnings of common culture. Perhaps they'll build their own fresh ones, perhaps it never mattered.

I think the elites of the world are steadily converging toward a common culture, which is exactly what gave the Roman empire its identity.

Re: Mapping Ancient Rome

#38

Post by gpvos »

al_form2000 wrote: post #27
SamBam wrote: post #18

I don't know whether I'm reading into this with a bias given that it's published in The American Conservative, but the conclusion of the article definitely reads as an homage to when "Western Civilization" was nice and homogeneous, and everyone could trace its lineage back to Rome. > The importance of classical Rome to the conscious and unconscious customs of later Western urbanism cannot be overstated. Today, as cul…

You are reading it with the bias you mention, and, as a consequence, you are attaching overbroad significance to a sentence that weighs in at about 3% of a text dedicated to the discussion of an archaelogical atlas of Ancient Rome.

Well, they suggest it in the title as well, so it appears like they find it important.

Re: Mapping Ancient Rome

#39

Post by ngcc_hk »

After going to the city buried under volcanic ashes, always under the impression of sewage issue of Roman city. And prostitution.

Not as clean and romantic.

Re: Mapping Ancient Rome

#40

Post by cco »

TomMarius wrote: post #11
cco wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Isn't progressivism basically forcing people to change? Some might see that as a nearly violent act against their freedom. But really, what else is there to progressivism than "you must change"? Does the above re-wording make the problem with your characterization more obvious? I hope that it is obvious that both "progressive" and "conservative" philosophies are qualified by necessary and persuasive reasons to do on…

The thing is, I am not a progressive in your understanding and by English sense of the word and I fully agree with your rewordization. In my country, progressives are comparable to US libertarians. What you list as positive traits seem to be just rational politics. That's how it's known in my country, not as something conservative or else. So is that conservatism, being rational and pragmatic instead of... Irrational…

It is very difficult to talk about both words given the amount of meaning that has been layered on top of both over the years. Generally conservative just means you are cautious around change, whereas progressives are much less cautious and more willing to experiment with new changes.
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