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I managed to generate a map of the Italic Peninsula with the borders corresponding to 250BC. Is there a way I can shade the area of the Roman empire of the time?

redDot = Graphics[{Red, Disk[]}];
blueDot = Graphics[{Blue, Disk[]}];

Rome = Entity["City", {"Rome", "Lazio", "Italy"}];
LakeTrasimeno = Entity["Lake", "LakeTrasimeno::946n7"];

GeoGraphics[{
  {GeoMarker[Rome, redDot, "Scale" -> Scaled[0.02]], Black, 
   Text[Style["Rome", Bold], Rome, {-1.5, 0}]},
  {GeoMarker[LakeTrasimeno, blueDot, "Scale" -> Scaled[0.02]], Black, 
   Text[Style["Trasimeno", Bold], LakeTrasimeno, {-1.2, 0}]}},
 GeoBackground -> Dated["CountryBorders", -250],
 GeoRange -> Quantity[1000, "Kilometers"]
 ]

enter image description here

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2 Answers 2

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I finally found a way of doing it. I must say, I'm speechless about the versatility of Mathematica. Watching this YouTube video was key: Historical Information in Wolfram|Alpha and the Wolfram Language.

redDot = Graphics[{Red, Disk[]}];
blueDot = Graphics[{Blue, Disk[]}];

Rome = Entity["City", {"Rome", "Lazio", "Italy"}];
LakeTrasimeno = Entity["Lake", "LakeTrasimeno::946n7"];

GeoGraphics[{{Polygon[
    Dated[Entity["HistoricalCountry", "RomanRepublic"], 
     Entity["MilitaryConflict", "SecondPunicWar"]["StartDate"]]]},
  {GeoMarker[Rome, redDot, "Scale" -> Scaled[0.02]], Black, 
   Text[Style["Rome", Bold], Rome, {-1.5, 0}]},
  {GeoMarker[LakeTrasimeno, blueDot, "Scale" -> Scaled[0.02]], Black, 
   Text[Style["Trasimeno", Bold], LakeTrasimeno, {-1.2, 0}]}
  },
 GeoBackground -> {"CountryBorders", 
   Entity["MilitaryConflict", "SecondPunicWar"]["StartDate"]},
 GeoRange -> Quantity[1000, "Kilometers"]]

enter image description here

Note: I used the natural language input feature a lot, but it doesn't show in the code above. For example, I would type ^= and write Second Punic War and get Entity["MilitaryConflict", "SecondPunicWar"]. I wish I knew a way to see what are the attributes of Entities like these. It took me a while to figure out how to extract the start date...

Answer to the original question

Here's the map of the Roman Republic in 250BC.

redDot = Graphics[{Red, Disk[]}];
blueDot = Graphics[{Blue, Disk[]}];

Rome = Entity["City", {"Rome", "Lazio", "Italy"}];
LakeTrasimeno = Entity["Lake", "LakeTrasimeno::946n7"];

GeoGraphics[{{Polygon[
    Dated[Entity["HistoricalCountry", "RomanRepublic"], 
     DateObject[{-250}]]]},
  {GeoMarker[Rome, redDot, "Scale" -> Scaled[0.02]], Black, 
   Text[Style["Rome", Bold], Rome, {-1.5, 0}]},
  {GeoMarker[LakeTrasimeno, blueDot, "Scale" -> Scaled[0.02]], Black, 
   Text[Style["Trasimeno", Bold], LakeTrasimeno, {-1.2, 0}]}
  },
 GeoBackground -> {"CountryBorders", DateObject[{-250}]},
 GeoRange -> Quantity[1000, "Kilometers"]]

enter image description here

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3
  • $\begingroup$ Neat, +1. But how does it correspond to the border right above Trasimeno in the plot in the question? $\endgroup$
    – corey979
    Commented Apr 15, 2018 at 7:06
  • $\begingroup$ @corey979 I added the answer to the original question. $\endgroup$
    – Maturin
    Commented Apr 15, 2018 at 16:56
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Cool. Geography is not my thing, but I think I'll play with it a bit. And I guess you can safely accept your own answer. $\endgroup$
    – corey979
    Commented Apr 15, 2018 at 17:38
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redDot = Graphics[{Red, Disk[]}];
blueDot = Graphics[{Blue, Disk[]}];
Rome = Entity["City", {"Rome", "Lazio", "Italy"}];
LakeTrasimeno = Entity["Lake", "LakeTrasimeno::946n7"];
GeoGraphics[{Polygon[
   Entity["HistoricalCountry", "RomanEmpire"]], {GeoMarker[Rome, 
    redDot, "Scale" -> Scaled[0.02]], Black, 
   Text[Style["Rome", Bold], Rome, {-1.5, 0}]}, {GeoMarker[
    LakeTrasimeno, blueDot, "Scale" -> Scaled[0.02]], Black, 
   Text[Style["Trasimeno", Bold], LakeTrasimeno, {-1.2, 0}]}}, 
 GeoBackground -> Dated["CountryBorders", -250], 
 GeoRange -> Quantity[1000, "Kilometers"]]

enter image description here

Improve this answer
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2
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Entity["HistoricalCountry", "RomanEmpire"]["StartDate"] yields DateObject[{-27, 1, 16}, "Day", "Gregorian", 2.] (and an "EndDate" of 395), so this does not match the borders at -250. I haven't found a match among Select[Entity["HistoricalCountry"]["Name"], StringContainsQ[#, "Roman"] &] either. $\endgroup$
    – corey979
    Commented Apr 14, 2018 at 23:12
  • $\begingroup$ Looks like there is only one "RomanEmpire" in the database, corresponding to the period of maximum expansion, most likely... $\endgroup$
    – ulvi
    Commented Apr 14, 2018 at 23:57

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