Infrastructure
Roman Roads
Also Known As Viae Romanae
Citation Formats
General Reference
APA Style
BibTeX
The road network built by the Roman Republic and Empire from around 300 BC onward, surveyed with the groma and built on layered foundations of rubble, gravel and concrete with cambered, drained surfaces. At its peak twenty-nine major highways radiated from Rome, linking 113 provinces through 372 great roads totaling more than 400,000 kilometres, over 80,500 of them stone-paved, built primarily for military movement, administration and trade rather than commerce alone. There is no single completion year: the network grew for centuries as the empire expanded, so no completion-year fact is recorded here.
Facts
SignificanceAn ancient observer ranked the paved road network among the empire's three greatest achievements alongside its aqueducts and drains, and the system's scale and standardization remain the reference point most popular accounts mean by "the first" engineered long-distance road network, though the Persian Royal Road predates it by roughly two centuries (see the open question on this atlas). 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Part Of
Preceded By
Chronologically the Persian Royal Road (organized 5th century BC) precedes the Roman network (from c. 300 BC): Roman Roads preceded-by Persian Royal Road, checked against the RelationKey preceded-by / InverseName Followed By reading before writing (subject was preceded by object).
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Roman Roads
WikipediaLead sectionQuote, Lead section
The extraordinary greatness of the Roman Empire manifests itself above all in three things: the aqueducts, the paved roads, and the construction of the drains.
1. Wikipedia: Roman Roads
WikipediaPart Of: Road Transport, PurposeQuote, Part Of: Road Transport, Purpose
The public road system of the Romans was thoroughly military in its aims and spirit...designed to unite and consolidate the conquests
Open Questions (1 open question)
Which civilization first built engineered, standardized long distance roads: Persia, Rome, or an earlier network?
The Roman road network is the most famous engineered ancient road system and the one this atlas most often names by reflex, but it was neither the first nor necessarily the most extensive. The Persian Royal Road, built under the Achaemenid Empire and described by Herodotus, predates the major Roman roads by roughly two centuries and connected Sardis to Susa with a maintained relay postal system. Earlier still, evidence exists for engineered roadways in the Indus Valley Civilization and in Bronze Age Anatolia. Which of these counts as the first depends on how strictly the road must be engineered, standardized and centrally maintained rather than simply a well used route.
What would resolve this A settled archaeological and textual consensus on the earliest confirmed centrally engineered and maintained long distance road network, which current evidence does not yet provide with confidence beyond the Persian Royal Road as the earliest well documented case.
Archaeology, ancient historyWikipedia: Silk Road
Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Open Questions: Which civilization first built engineered, standardized long distance roads: Persia, Rome, or an earlier network?
The reading that emphasizes Roman primacy: most popular and encyclopedic accounts credit Rome as "the first" engineered road network in practice, because the Roman system is what set the durable standard, layered foundations, cambered drainage, systematic surveying with the groma, applied at a scale (more than 400,000 kilometres, over 80,500 stone-paved) no earlier network approached. On this reading, chronological priority is less important than which network's engineering methods actually became the template later road builders followed.
A dissenting reading, from an independent laneWikipedia: Roman Roads, Wikipedia
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.