PEUTINGERIAN TABLE is the name given to a map of the roads of the ancient Roman world, which is on parchment, and was found in a library at Speyer in the 15th century. It was bequeathed by the proprietor Conrad Celtes to his friend Conrad Peutinger, a learned man of Augsburg, who began to prepare a copy of it for pub lication, but died in 1547, before he could effect his purpose. Mark Velter however copied it on a scale less than one-half of its original size, and sent his copy to Ortelius, who forwarded it to Muretus, who pub lished it in 1598. This reduced copy has been inserted in the Ptolemy of Bertius, in Horn's Orbis Delineatio,' and in Bergier's Histuire des grands Chemins de l'Empire Remain.' The original map remained at Augsburg, in the possession of Peutinger's descendants, till 1714, when it was purchased by a bookseller, and sold by him to Prince Eugene, who gave it to the imperial library of Vienna. An exact copy of it was made by F. C. Von Scheyb, at Vienna, with an introduction and index, and dedicated to the empress Maria Theresa; Tabula Itineraria Peutingeriana, (lux in Augusta Bibliotheca Vindo bonensi nwac servatur, adcurate execripta h Fr. Christoph. De Scheyb, cum Indice,' fol., Vienna. 1753. The map is 21 feet in length, and about one foot wide. The author, whoever be was, did not iutend to draw a proper geographical map, with the relative positions of countries, but merely to collect all the great roads of the empire into a long narrow strip, marking the stations upon each, and the distances between the stations, for the information of travellers and chiefly of military and civil officers. The towns on the roads are marked by email houses ; some, being worthy of particular notice, are designated by square buildings like barracks; and some more impor taut towns and military stations, such as Aquileia, Ravenna, &c., are distinguished by walla and towers. Rome is distinguished by a circle with a crowned figure seated in the middle, and the port of Trajan is conspicuously sketched near the right bank of the Tiber, at the mouth of the river. Constantinople is marked by a circle and a figure, which however is not crowned. .Antioch is the only
other city which is also distinguished by a circle and a figure, in which last 3Iannert thinks that he recognises the Virgin Mary, which he believes to bo an interpolation of some copyist of the middle ages, who had before him an older map of the time of the Pagan emperors. ( Manncrt'e `Introduction' to his new edition of Peutinger's Table, folio, Leipzig, 1824.) That the original map was drawn while the old religion of the empire was still dominant, seems proved by the heathen temples which are marked upon it, whilst there is no Christian name, with the exception of St. Peter's at Rome, which is probably also an interpolation of the copyist.
Several other particulars on the map seem to -fix the date of its origival construction to about the time of Alexander Severus, after the Persians had overthrown the Parthian dominion, A.D. 226. The Persiin empire is marked in its full extent and written in large capitals, whilst I'arthia is indicated by smaller characters as a province. Palmyra ie marked as an Important place, with roads leading to it through tho desert, which would seem to refer to an epoch previous to its destruction by Aurelian. Edema in Macedonia is marked under that name, whilst in the Antonine Itinerary it ie called Diocletiano polls. This and other evidence collected by Mannert indicate at all events an epoch between the reign of Alexander Severus and the end of the Urd century, making allowance for the interpolations of subse quent copyists.
The Peutingerian Table does not 'always agree with the Antonine Itinerary ; several stations and towns which are in the one are not in the other ; the distances between the stations marked ou both some times disagree ; besides which, in consequence of the form of the map, several roads which are distinct on the Itinerary are placed on the map consecutively, as if they all formed one line ; whilst others, which are single roads on the Itinerary, are cut into two or three in the map. However the Itinerary is still of great use in explaining the map, and the two together are among the most valuable ancient works on geo graphy which have come down to us.