Information architecture

[mirrorshard]

I have managed to represent the Julio-Claudian family tree, from Atia to Nero, on one large piece of paper without needing any footnotes or relationship lines crossing the whole page. I am quite pleased with this.

Comments

[violent-blue.livejournal.com]

Using only one side of the paper? And without converting it into a mobius strip?

[mirrorshard.livejournal.com]

Yep! And without warping local space-time either. A single flat surface in a flat environment.

[arkady.livejournal.com]

Just how big is this piece of paper though? :-)

[mirrorshard.livejournal.com]

700x1000, landscape, Redeem 300gsm.

[arkady.livejournal.com]

And what height is your handwriting? :-)

Also: photo? :-) :-)

[mirrorshard.livejournal.com]

1" lettering, since it needs to be readable from across the room; and when I've finished! It's not the number of them that's problematic, it's their inconsiderate habit of marrying everyone in sight.

[arkady.livejournal.com]

Yes, they were pretty bad for that. Not to mention incestuous. They make the London bi/polyamory scene look positively sedate and stable by comparison.

I look forward to seeing the photos once finished!

[elettaria.livejournal.com]

I'm seriously impressed. I tried making a family tree using mindmapping software and the back of I, Claudius, and got stuck after about two generations.

Do you reckon it would be simpler or more complex if they had refrained from murdering each other? Obviously you can't produce any more children etc. once you're dead, but on the other hand it results in all these remarriages.

[mirrorshard.livejournal.com]

I'd say simpler, because there's less crosslinking. The two main problems come with Julia's marriage to Tiberius and Livilla's to Gaius - those need the whole thing to be twisted inside-out a little.


I cheated slightly by leaving out some of the extraneous spouses who don't appear in the TV series - Augustus's first and second wives, for instance, and the second wife's first husband. The second wife, Scribonia, is Julia's mother, but I'm only putting characters who aren't on screen in when they're necessary to connect someone to the main line. Atia, for instance, since she's the only connection between Augustus and Octavia (and therefore also Antonia) and Marcella Minor and Barbatus (who connect Messalina to Atia).

Equally, Claudius's children by Urgulanilla and Aelia don't get on, and nor does Tiberius's child by Julia.

[alextiefling.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! (Now try the Spanish Habsburgs.)

Would you still be interested in my attempts to produce personal 'you are here' family trees for participants, or does this triumph mean I needn't worry?

[mirrorshard.livejournal.com]

I'd say not to bother unless it's something you want to do anyway and have plenty of time for. I'm sure they'd be appreciated, but this one is for a wallchart in the main room, so we'll always have a reference diagram.

[alextiefling.livejournal.com]

OK - I'll only do those if I'm done with other stuff. (I'm building the database anyway, but the charts are optional.)

Speaking of other stuff, would a guide to Roman naming conventions or anything like that be useful?

[mirrorshard.livejournal.com]

We actually have one somewhere - something Elly wrote up for a Roman roleplay a few years back.

[mirabehn.livejournal.com]

As Sam says, I wrote one last year for an RPG I wrote. I'm going to tidy it up and distribute it, hopefully by the beginning of next week. :-)

[swisstone.livejournal.com]

I have to ask: How? I've never seen a wholly successful way of doing this (when I teach Nero's succession I usually need two tables to cover the relationships).

[mirrorshard.livejournal.com]

By a combination of leaving out people who don't appear onstage in I, Claudius, and angling some of the parent-child relationships away from the vertical, or even the other way up (it starts from Augustus, Livia, and Octavia as a root at the bottom, rather than top-down). That way, everyone fits on and it's fairly clear. I still haven't managed a photo of it, but will give it a go; there should be enough light.