Surveying the Roman Empire

Written By Kari Campbell

Bust of Aristotle. Marble, Roman copy after a Greek bronze original by Lysippos from 330 BC; the alabaster mantle is a modern addition.

Did you know that the term “geodesy” was coined by Aristotle in about 350 BC? The term is derived from the Greek word ge, which means earth, and deo, which means to divide land. He created that name to differentiate it from the field of mathematics, called geometry in ancient Greek, (ge for “earth” and metry, meaning “to measure”). Essentially, geodesy means applied math[1].

Aristotle also believed the earth was a sphere, based on observations that "there are stars seen in Egypt and Cyprus which are not seen in the northerly regions. "Since this could only happen on a curved surface, he too believed Earth was a sphere" of no great size, for otherwise the effect of so slight a change of place would not be quickly apparent."[2]

The Roman Empire

Later, the Romans, like Aristotle,  relied on ancient mathematical and astronomical discoveries to create a method of surveying that helped drive the expansion of the Roman Empire. The Romans established land surveying as an official profession; land surveyors in this time were known as agrimensores. From the first century AD, agrimensores in Rome were known for creating perfect straight lines and right angles. Land division was often undertaken in order to provide a place to live for veterans of the Roman army.  These settlements were known as colonia.[3] In most cases, the military was responsible for plotting the route of new roads, but civil surveyors were used to survey courses for aqueducts, settle boundary disputes, and prepare the groundwork for buildings.[4]

LibriVox recording of The Stratagems and The Aqueducts of Rome by Sextus Julius Frontinus. (Translated by Charles E. Bennett.)

At the height of the Roman Empire, Sextus Julius Frontinus served in many military campaigns both as a surveyor and as an officer, and later, as Governor of Britain. He records surveying ramparts to protect supply lines supporting a brutal Roman campaign to crush foes in Germany (circa 14 AD)[5]. Fortunately for future surveyors, Frontinus recorded surveying practices in a number of works, including detailed reports on aqueduct construction and maintenance and a book on military strategy that were eventually gathered into an important Roman topographical work, the Corpus Agrimensorum. Written in the 6th or 7th century, it was one of the main tools of European civil servants for centuries.[1]

Too Large to Manage

Romani Imperii Imago, 1603

In 286 A.D. the Emperor Diocletian decided to split the massive empire into two geographic/administrative areas to try to deal with constant invasions. It had proven impossible to manage the vast borders centrally. He ruled the Eastern Empire from the Balkans, and his co-emperor, Maximian, ruled the Western Empire from Marseilles.

Diocletian also instituted additional taxes. The new taxes were levied on a proportional basis, the amount of the contribution being determined by the productivity and type of land cultivation.[6] Of course, land surveying was used to determine the amount of land cultivated by each person. Although the taxes helped pay for the protection of the empire, they also undermined society by overburdening those who were not already wealthy.

The Real 1000 Year Empire

(ca. 1890) Bosphorus i.e., Bosporus, view from Kuleli, Constantinople, Turkey. Istanbul Turkey, ca. 1890. [Between and Ca. 1900] Retrieved from the Library of Congress.

By 324, Constantine the Great had re-united the empire and established a new capital in Turkey named after himself – Constantinople. It was the site of a small Greek city called Byzantium founded by Greeks in about 650 BC. Constantine chose this location, according to Gibbon, because “he had sufficient opportunity to contemplate, both as a soldier and as a statesman, the incomparable position of Byzantium [Constantinople]; and to observe how strongly it was guarded by nature against a hostile attack, whilst it was accessible on every side to the benefits of commercial intercourse.[7]”

By Carole Raddato from Frankfurt, Germany - Funerary relief found in Neumagen near Trier, a teacher with three discipuli, around 180-185 AD, Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier, Germany, CC BY-SA 2.0, h

Another benefit of this Greek location was that the Greek language and education system persisted. “The four mathematical sciences - arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music - were included in educational curricula throughout the duration of the Byzantine Empire. . . At the same time, there was no cessation in the teaching of logistic, essentially a form of elementary arithmetic for commercial purposes and geodesy, which was also considered a branch of arithmetic, since in addition to teaching the demarcation of fields, it also taught how to calculate areas and volumes by type and quality of crop. The latter two subjects - logistic, geodesy - were also taught by private teachers outside schools, since they interested more students, given their practical application in daily life.”[8]

Thanks to Constantinople’s secure location, solid educational system, diplomacy that focused on avoiding war, development of new weapons, good internal administration and a common religion helped the Byzantine Empire last more than 1,000 years.[9]

It’s amazing how education and practical applications of mathematics, such as surveying, contribute to the stability of society. It’s more important than ever to encourage young people to explore surveying careers – a profession that has been key to civilization for millennia.

Kari Campbell
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