Roman Empire (AD 117) quiz

What's on this map

The Roman Empire at its greatest extent, when the emperor Trajan died in August 117 AD. The map shows the 46 provinces from Britannia in the north-west to Mesopotamia on the Persian Gulf. Italy itself was not a province: it was governed directly from Rome. The Mediterranean was entirely Roman, and the Romans called it "our sea".

Trajan's last conquests are the eastern ones. Dacia, north of the Danube in today's Romania, was taken in two wars that ended in 106. Arabia Petraea, around Petra, was annexed the same year. Armenia and Mesopotamia were conquered from Parthia in 114–116. His successor Hadrian gave up Armenia and Mesopotamia almost at once, so they were Roman for only a few years. In the north, the frontier followed the Rhine and the Danube. In Britain, Hadrian's Wall was begun in 122, a few years after this map.

The places people miss

• Alpes Maritimae, Alpes Cottiae and Alpes Graiae et Poeninae – three tiny provinces guarding the Alpine passes.
• Noricum and Raetia – the Alpine provinces that are now Austria, Switzerland and southern Germany.
• Moesia Superior and Moesia Inferior – along the south bank of the Danube, in today's Serbia and Bulgaria.
• Epirus – a small province on the west coast of Greece, separate from Achaea and Macedonia.
• Mauretania Tingitana – northern Morocco, with its capital at Tingis (Tangier).
• Iudaea – the province around Jerusalem, renamed Syria Palaestina after the revolt of 132–135.

How to learn it

• Start in the west: Hispania with three provinces and Gaul with four.
• Then follow the frontier east along the Rhine and the Danube: the two Germanias, Raetia, Noricum, the Pannonias, the Moesias and Dacia.
• Learn Anatolia last. Asia, Bithynia et Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Lycia et Pamphylia and Cilicia sit close together.
• Capitals mode is a good test of Latin place names: Londinium, Lugdunum, Carthago and Antiochia.