Roman roads

With the exception of some outlying portions, such as Britain north of the Wall, Dacia, and certain provinces east of the Euphrates, the whole Empire was penetrated by these itinera (plural of iter).

They reach the Wall in Britain; run along the Rhine, the Danube, and the Euphrates; and cover, as with a network, the interior provinces of the Empire.

[10] The Laws of the Twelve Tables, dated to about 450 BC, required that any public road (Latin via) be 8 Roman feet (perhaps about 2.37 m) wide where straight and twice that width where curved.

Siculus Flaccus, who lived under Trajan (98–117), calls them viae publicae regalesque,[9] and describes their characteristics as follows: Roman roads were named after the censor who had ordered their construction or reconstruction.

[9] Gaius Gracchus, when Tribune of the People (123–122 BC), paved or gravelled many of the public roads and provided them with milestones and mounting-blocks for riders.

Gaius Scribonius Curio, when Tribune (50 BC), sought popularity by introducing a Lex Viaria, under which he was to be chief inspector or commissioner for five years.

[9] With the conquest of Italy, prepared viae were extended from Rome and its vicinity to outlying municipalities, sometimes overlying earlier roads.

The construction and care of the public roads, whether in Rome, in Italy, or in the provinces, was, at all periods of Roman history, considered to be a function of the greatest weight and importance.

This is clearly shown by the fact that the censors, in some respects the most venerable of Roman magistrates, had the earliest paramount authority to construct and repair all roads and streets.

[9] The devolution to the censorial jurisdictions became a practical necessity, resulting from the growth of the Roman dominions and the diverse labors which detained the censors in the capital city.

In Italy, the censorial responsibility passed to the commanders of the Roman armies and later to special commissioners, and in some cases perhaps to the local magistrates.

They eventually made contracts for paving the street inside Rome, including the Clivus Capitolinus, with lava, and for laying down the roads outside the city with gravel.

[9] In case of an emergency in the condition of a particular road, men of influence and liberality were appointed, or voluntarily acted, as curatores or temporary commissioners to superintend the work of repair.

Among those who performed this duty in connection with particular roads was Julius Caesar, who became curator (67 BC) of the Via Appia and spent his own money liberally upon it.

The governing structure was changed by Augustus, who in the course of his reconstitution of the urban administration, both abolished and created new offices in connection with the maintenance of public works, streets, and aqueducts in and around Rome.

Augustus abolished the duoviri and later granted the position as superintendent (according to Dio Cassius) of the road system connecting Rome to the rest of Italy and provinces beyond.

The persons appointed under the new system were of senatorial or equestrian rank, depending on the relative importance of the roads assigned to them.

It was the duty of each curator to issue contracts for the maintenance of his road and to see that the contractor who undertook said work performed it faithfully, as to both quantity and quality.

[9] It was in the character of an imperial curator (though probably armed with extraordinary powers) that Corbulo denounced the magistratus and mancipes of the Italian roads to Tiberius.

[9] He pursued them and their families with fines and imprisonment and was later rewarded with a consulship by Caligula, who also shared the habit of condemning well-born citizens to work on the roads.

[9] The Itinerary of Antoninus (which was probably a work of much earlier date and republished in an improved and enlarged form under one of the Antonine emperors) remains as standing evidence of the minute care which was bestowed on the service of the public roads.

Today, the concrete has worn from the spaces around the stones, giving the impression of a very bumpy road, but the original practice was to produce a surface that was no doubt much closer to being flat.

Livy speaks of the censors of his time as being the first to contract for paving the streets of Rome with flint stones, for laying gravel on the roads outside the city, and for forming raised footpaths at the sides.

The libratores then began their work using ploughs and, sometimes with the help of legionaries, with spades excavated the road bed down to bedrock or at least to the firmest ground they could find.

A legion on the march brought its own baggage train (impedimenta) and constructed its own camp (castra) every evening at the side of the road.

The modern word "mile" derives from the Latin milia passuum, "one thousand paces", each of which was five Roman feet, or in total 1,476 m (4,843 ft).

Combined topographical and road-maps may have existed as specialty items in some Roman libraries, but they were expensive, hard to copy and not in general use.

Travelers wishing to plan a journey could consult an itinerarium, which in its most basic form was a simple list of cities and towns along a given road and the distances between them.

In the early days of the viae, when little unofficial provision existed, houses placed near the road were required by law to offer hospitality on demand.

Using these stations as chariot relays, Tiberius hastened 296 kilometres (184 mi) in 24 hours to join his brother, Drusus Germanicus,[23][24] who was dying of gangrene as a result of a fall from a horse.