markers were used to illustrate the proper path. This lack of attention to detail is contrasted with the uniform stone highways that generally existed near major urban centers, typically built by soldiers overseen by army engineers. Romans tended to build their roads without curves as often as possible. Contrasted with Greece, the danger of violence was less pronounced on Roman roads, due to the strong central military present in Rome. Due to the difficulty and stress of travel by land, few civilians chose to conduct long-distance travel or trade over Rome's roads. Instead, tax collectors, couriers, soldiers, and other government officials were primary users of the highway network. Mapmaking and itineraria Scholars remain split as to whether or not the Greeks and Romans produced representative maps to serve as guides, and, if so, the level of their sophistication. Those who argue that there was no formal practice of cartography in the ancient world cite the lack of evidence, and the lack of materials that would have formed viable maps. Chinese contemporaries of the Romans did produce durable maps through their access to silk, a hardier material than those accessible in the Mediterranean world. Papyrus, the most likely Mediterranean candidate that could have been produced cheaply, was too sensitive, and would not have withstood long-term use. Other materials that might have been used (wood or vellum) have not survived; the only records that exist to this day are in the form of text, either as travelogues or descriptions of maps. Without ready access to maps, both Greeks and Romans relied on itineraria to conduct sea travel, and the Romans used the documents for land travel as well. These documents were lists of cities or ports and the distances between them. Itineraria may have sometimes included crude illustrations, never to scale, to orient travelers as they moved through Roman or Greek territory. Extant examples, both saved by monastic copying traditions, include the Antonine Itinerary (which included roads in Britain) and the Tabula Peutingeriana (which may have been a guide for couriers, or a decoration). Greek maps Greek maps were often either localized, intended to demonstrate the shapes of specific cities, or to represent abstract concepts, such as the realm of the oikoumene, or known world. There are no extant Greek maps, but descriptions of one by Anaximander and others indicate that they split the oikoumene into continents—Europe, Asia, and Libya—within which there