Miliarium

Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. They provided efficient means for the overland movement of armies, officials, civilians, inland carriage of official communications, and trade goods. Roman roads were of several kinds, ranging from small local roads to broad, long-distance highways built to connect cities, major towns and military bases. These major roads were often stone-paved and metaled, cambered for drainage, and were flanked by footpaths, bridleways and drainage ditches. They were laid along accurately surveyed courses, and some were cut through hills, or conducted over rivers and ravines on bridgework. Sections could be supported over marshy ground on rafted or piled foundations.Corbishley, Mike: "The Roman World", page 50. Warwick Press, 1986.

At the peak of Rome's development, no fewer than 29 great military highways radiated from the capital, and the late Empire's 113 provinces were interconnected by 372 great roads.Bailey, L. H., and Wilhelm Miller. ''Cyclopedia of American Horticulture, Comprising Suggestions for Cultivation of Horticultural Plants, Descriptions of the Species of Fruits, Vegetables, Flowers, and Ornamental Plants Sold in the United States and Canada, Together with Geographical and Biographical Sketches''. New York tc. The Macmillan Co, 1900
Page 320
The whole comprised more than of roads, of which over were stone-paved. In Gaul alone, no less than of roadways are said to have been improved, and in Britain at least . The courses (and sometimes the surfaces) of many Roman roads survived for millennia; some are overlaid by modern roads.

Roman systems

Livy mentions some of the most familiar roads near Rome, and the milestones on them, at times long before the first paved road—the Appian Way. Unless these allusions are just simple anachronisms, the roads referred to were probably at the time little more than levelled earthen tracks. Thus, the Via Gabina (during the time of Porsena) is mentioned in about 500 BC; the Via Latina (during the time of Gaius Marcius Coriolanus) in about 490 BC; the Via Nomentana (also known as "Via Ficulensis"), in 449 BC; the Via Labicana in 421 BC; and the Via Salaria in 361 BC.Smith (1890).

In the Itinerary of Antoninus, the description of the road system is as follows:

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''). There is hardly a district to which we might expect a Roman official to be sent, on service either civil or military, where we do not find roads. 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.

A road map of the empire reveals that it was generally laced with a dense network of prepared ''viae''. Beyond its borders there were no paved roads; however, it can be supposed that footpaths and dirt roads allowed some transport. There were, for instance, some pre-Roman ancient trackways in Britain, such as the Ridgeway and the Icknield Way.

Laws and traditions

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. These were probably the minimum widths for a ''via''; in the later Republic, widths of around 12 Roman feet were common for public roads in rural regions, permitting the passing of two carts of standard (4 foot) width without interference to pedestrian traffic. Actual practices varied from this standard. The Tables command Romans to build public roads and give wayfarers the right to pass over private land where the road is in disrepair. Building roads that would not need frequent repair therefore became an ideological objective, as well as building them as straight as practicable to construct the shortest possible roads, and thus save on material.

Roman law defined the right to use a road as a ''servitus'', or liability. The ''ius eundi'' ("right of going") established a claim to use an ''iter'', or footpath, across private land; the ''ius agendi'' ("right of driving"), an ''actus'', or carriage track. A ''via'' combined both types of ''servitutes'', provided it was of the proper width, which was determined by an ''arbiter''. The default width was the ''latitudo legitima'' of 8 feet.

Roman law and tradition forbade the use of vehicles in urban areas, except in certain cases. Married women and government officials on business could ride. The '' Lex Iulia Municipalis'' restricted commercial carts to night-time access in the city within the walls and within a mile outside the walls.

Types

Roman roads varied from simple corduroy roads to paved roads using deep roadbeds of tamped rubble as an underlying layer to ensure that they kept dry, as the water would flow out from between the stones and fragments of rubble, instead of becoming mud in clay soils. According to Ulpian, there were three types of roads:
#''Viae publicae, consulares, praetoriae'' or ''militares''
#''Viae privatae, rusticae, glareae'' or ''agrariae''
#''Viae vicinales''

''Viae publicae, consulares, praetoriae'' and ''militares''

The first type of road included public high or main roads, constructed and maintained at the public expense, and with their soil vested in the state. Such roads led either to the sea, or to a town, or to a public river (one with a constant flow), or to another public road. Siculus Flaccus, who lived under Trajan (98–117), calls them ''viae publicae regalesque'', and describes their characteristics as follows:
# They are placed under ''curatores'' ( commissioners), and repaired by ''redemptores'' ( contractors) at the public expense; a fixed contribution, however, being levied from the neighboring landowners.
# These roads bear the names of their constructors (e.g. Via Appia, Cassia, Flaminia).

Roman roads were named after the censor who had ordered their construction or reconstruction. The same person often served afterwards as consul, but the road name is dated to his term as censor. If the road was older than the office of censor or was of unknown origin, it took the name of its destination or of the region through which it mainly passed. A road was renamed if the censor ordered major work on it, such as paving, repaving, or rerouting. With the term ''viae regales'' compare the roads of the Persian kings (who probably organized the first system of public roads) and the King's highway. With the term ''viae militariae'' compare the Icknield Way