"It is a thing of no great difficulty to raise objections against another man's digital map--

nay, that is very easy;

but to produce a better in its place is a work extremely troublesome."

--Plutarch

• Introduction
  "Aristagoras...came then to Sparta during the reign of Cleomenes, and when he had an audience with the King (so the Spartans report) he brought with him a bronze tablet on which the map [chalkeon pinaka] of all the earth was engraved, and all the sea and all the rivers." .." Summary: we Ionians need help to remain free, if would be a disgrace if you, the strongest of the Greeks abandon us. Moreover, the Persians lack courage, and even wear pants. Most importantly, they are very rich. " take that city and then you need not to fear to challenge Zeus himself for riches " Cleomenes postponed his decision for three days. On the third day he asked Aristagoras how many days journey it was from the Aegean to Susa. . " “Thereupon Aristagoras, who had managed the rest so cleverly, and succeeded in deceiving the king, tripped in his speech and blundered; for instead of concealing the truth, as he ought to have done if he wanted to induce the Spartans to cross into Asia, he said plainly that it was a journey of three months. Cleomenes caught at the words, and, preventing Aristagoras from finishing what he had begun to say concerning the road, addressed him thus:- "Milesian guest, quit Sparta before sunset. This is no good proposal that you make to the Lacedaemonians, to conduct them a distance of three months' journey from the sea."
• The map may have looked something like this and something like it may have been set up at Rome under Augustus
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• There were other problems with these maps. For example, the island of Britain was depicted in several ways.
• Effective maps ought to be more than static representations.
  • Consider this map of ship wrecks; note that causes are not clear at all. Storm? war? pirates? navigational errors?
    
  • They also ought to represent change. Consider this map of Germany in 1919.
    Is this map a success? Do we understand any better why the Germans hated the Versailles treaty? What do we need to know to make sense of map? How can it be improved?
    
  • Perhaps it might be better to render "before" and "after" maps. Consider these two popular maps of the Mediterranean in 60 and 44 BC.
  • 
    What would it take to improve these maps?
  • Now consider this map of Europe during the barbarian invasions.
    
    
    What can the typical undergraduate say about the fall of the Roman Empire on the basis of this map? Does he or she have any sense of the fundamental causes of political change in this period? or why urbanization was in decline?
  • In fact, historians want to measure the phases of transformation and also understand the slow and often irregular changes that occurred. .
• The central question remains: how can we best represent historical change. Here are some models or options to consider:
  • A static map may be enough to represents relatively simple events, here the battle of Mantinea. But the material may be confusing with lines, colors and text.
  • 
  • Nevertheless, Krommeyer-Veith often needed to employ a series of maps to represent a relatively straightforward battle. Here Leuctra. .
    
  • Here is an important example of a map that relies on a variety of sources and scholarship. Note how the red lines are used to suggest the progress of the disease across Europe over a two year period.
    
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  • The more factors one introduces into a map the more complex and incomprehensible it may become. Consider this famous 19th C. map showing the fate of the Napoleonic forces in 1812. .
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• Though our maps are a marginal improvement on those seen by Herodotus, the fact remains that however desirable it may be to represent the dynamics of historical change it is in fact very difficult to do so.

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"It is a thing of no great difficulty to raise objections against another man's digital map--nay, it is very easy; but to produce a better in its place is a work extremely troublesome." --Plutarch

1. Here I will give you four examples of how we have developed the material in our new system.
   1. The Problem: "States' Rights" and "slavery" belong to the most important factors leading to the American civil war. But why was slavery so important to the South? Slavery and Cotton.
   2. The Problem: Romanization. In the biography of his father-in-law, Tacitus describes what Agricola had done to encourage peace and romanization. The elite should be challenged to devote their resources to the construction of civic amenities, and in the Histories (4.74) he notes in the famous speech attributed to Petillus Cerialis the following: "Gaul always had its kingdoms and wars until you [Gauls] submitted to our authority...from you we have never asked for more that what was needed to support the peace (taxes collected in order to support armies). Everything else we hold in common with you. You often command our legions and govern this and other provinces. There are no privileges and no distinctions and no exclusions [nihil separatum clausumve]. Tacitus had then a very clear concept: Romanization meant urbanization, peace, integration. But was he right?
   3. The Problem: Athens and Classical Culture: how unique is the former?? Greek cities and intellectual activity: Was Athens so distinctive? or is there a general receptive intellectual atmosphere in the Greek city-states?
   4. The Problem: Was the Crisis of the 3rd Century due to external forces? or to internal collapse?
   5. Role of academies Europe, 1500 to 1800. NOTE: significant university reform does not begin until after 1825.
2. In conclusion:
   1. We are not offering a technological breakthrough.
   2. The main advantage here is to arrangement of static material so that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
   3. The observer has the opportunity the consider and evaluate a variety of factors (not limited to those here).
   4. We believe that this system allow a considerable body of scholarly research to be presented in such a way that it gives both beginners and advanced student new insights into historical problems.
   5. If nothing else, we hope that those present leave with a more critical understanding of what constitutes a good historical map, and what needs to be done to make them better.