Diocletian's Throne Room with the Peutinger Map

3D Model

This video illustrates Prof. Richard Talbert’s proposition that the Peutinger Map is an unrevised copy of a Roman world map used to decorate the throne room of the emperor Diocletian built at Split, Croatia. In this context, the map’s primary function, according to Talbert, was to symbolize the reunification of the Roman Empire under Diocletian at the very end of the third century AD.

The Peutinger Map is the only map of the Roman world to come down to us from antiquity. An elongated masterpiece, full of colorful detail and featuring land routes across Europe, North Africa, and the Near East, it was rediscovered mysteriously around 1500 and then came into the ownership of Konrad Peutinger, for whom it is named. Talbert posits that the map’s true purpose was not to assist travelers along Rome’s highways, but rather to celebrate the restoration of peace and order by Diocletian’s Tetrarchy.