Corinth Computer Project: Roman Landscape

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Cityscape Planning

This map illustrates the comparative sizes and locations of the Greek and Roman cities of Corinth. The Greek city includes the area within the 5th century B.C. wall circuit. Fortification walls also enclose Acrocorinth and the area within the long walls to the Corinthian Gulf. The location of the west long wall is hypothetical and is reconstructed by the Corinth Computer Project, based on a study of the field and property lines of the area to the north of the city. All of the walls are indicated in grey on the map.

The urban aspect of the Roman colony of 44 B.C. was planned to occupy a large portion of the area of the former Greek city. The location of the Roman city is indicated in blue and the area of the forum is indicated in red. The cardo maximus, also known as the Lechaion Road, is shown as a white line.

Greek City:

Perimeter of circuit wall: 10.29 km
Area within circuit walls (including Acrocorinth): 5.55 square km
Area within long walls: 6.77 square km

Roman City:

Urban area: 2.41 square km

Click on the plan to enlarge.

Roman Landscape

Sixteen 1:2000 topographical maps from the Greek Geodetic Survey have been digitized to create the topographical foundation for the immediate area of Roman Corinth, roughly 35 square kilometers. The topographical maps include information such as modern roads, paths, ledges, property lines, field lines, houses, as well as topographical contours. It has been noted, for instance, that several modern village roads still have as their orientation the Roman roads of the colony (fig. 2).

In addition, some modern house and lot lines still respect the ancient Roman insulae and, in the areas surrounding the city, it has been noted that aspects of the modern field boundaries still reflect vestiges of the ancient Roman land division, with some lots retaining the original colonial orientation as well as maintaining widths of 1 Roman actus of 120 Roman feet (fig. 3). From the contour lines of the topographical maps it has been possible to utilize other engineering and GIS programs to create digital terrain models of aspects of the site, general three dimensional computer images of the landscape as well as to run three dimensional GIS functions.

Click on the plans to enlarge.

Figure x: Flavian centuriation, ca. A.D. 70. Detail of A2 and A3 units illustrating evidence from field lines, property lines, roads, ledges, and paths. Yellow indicates evidence for the A2 grid, and magenta for the A3 grid.

Click on the plans to enlarge.

Figure x: Flavian centuriation, ca. A.D. 70, showing restored grid of 16 x 24 actus units.

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