M. Porcius Cato Posted July 16, 2007 Report Share Posted July 16, 2007 According to Matyszak's (fantastic!) Ancient Rome on Five Denarii a Day, Roman highways extended over 180,000 miles. Does anyone happen to know whether these were Roman miles or Imperial miles? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaius Paulinus Maximus Posted July 16, 2007 Report Share Posted July 16, 2007 According to Matyszak's (fantastic!) Ancient Rome on Five Denarii a Day, Roman highways extended over 180,000 miles. Does anyone happen to know whether these were Roman miles or Imperial miles? Most of the sources that I've looked at state that at it's peak the Roman road system spanned approx. 50,000 miles ( 80,000km). I'm just in the proccess of reading "Five Denarii" myself and your right it is fantastic. There's quiet an interesting piece on Roman roads here on UNRV written I'm guessing by PP. http://www.unrv.com/culture/roman-roads.php Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M. Porcius Cato Posted July 16, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 16, 2007 Most of the sources that I've looked at state that at it's peak the Roman road system spanned approx. 50,000 miles ( 80,000km). Right. There's 130,000 miles unaccounted for somewhere, and I'm trying to find them! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maty Posted July 17, 2007 Report Share Posted July 17, 2007 Right. There's 130,000 miles unaccounted for somewhere, and I'm trying to find them! I think I had better join in the hunt. If I've given the Romans three times too many miles of road, this will be both infuriating and embarrassing. I'll get back to my notes to find what the dickens is going on. Glad that you are enjoying the rest of the book - fortunately many of the general public think so too. It's going for a reprint, and the if this is an error (and why do I get a horrible sinking feeling as I write that?), we can get it sorted out in the next edition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maty Posted July 17, 2007 Report Share Posted July 17, 2007 Okay - I found my notes. (The joy of being organized!) Here's how I reached my conclusion. The original 50,000 mile figure seems to have come from an old but still highly authoritative treatise by a bloke called Bergier, which he got by adding the length of the 372 major highways which existed at the time of Diocletian. These are the Consular and Praetorian roads - roads long enough to cross local administrative boundaries and therefore fall under the purveiw of the imperial administration. The interstate motorways, if you will. My figure includes the viae communales - those roads built by local government and provincial governors. The A and B roads if you prefer. This was based on a figure from an archaeological journal which studied the provincial road networks (in North Italy, I think) and concluded that there were slightly over three miles of viae communales (servicing the local region) for every mile of road which transected it. This figure does not include all Viae Vicinales, which were sometimes private roads, but linking roads, and roads leading to civitates, but not roads to oppidae (small towns). Note also that this figure does include viae privatae if they were maintained at private expense as a public service. On reflection, 'highways' might be wrong. Any suggestions for a road which is more than a back road, but not necessarily a consular or praetorian road? 'Paved road', 'all weather road?' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Primus Pilus Posted July 17, 2007 Report Share Posted July 17, 2007 Allow me just to concur that the information I provided in my article is indeed an attempt to reflect 'imperial highways' connecting the farthest reaches of the empire. While I am not nearly so organized as Maty, I do believe that the number came from Bergier's "Histoire des Grands Chemins de l'Empire", though it may have come indirectly through Gibbon. (I recall that he references Bergier at least a couple of times in "Decline and Fall". There's no question that calculating the distances covered on any number of common local roads would vastly outweigh the 50,000 mile standard. In fact, I'd hazard to guess that common city streets are not even included in the 180,000 suggested in "5 Denarii a Day", so the ultimate number could even be much higher depending on perspective. In any case, I was completely unaware of and would love to read the archaeological survey you referenced Maty. Would you happen to have any more information on it in your notes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M. Porcius Cato Posted July 17, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 17, 2007 My figure includes the viae communales - those roads built by local government and provincial governors. The A and B roads if you prefer. This was based on a figure from an archaeological journal which studied the provincial road networks (in North Italy, I think) and concluded that there were slightly over three miles of viae communales (servicing the local region) for every mile of road which transected it. Aha! I knew there had to be a good explanation. Generally, it doesn't seem that the modern categories of roads--which are distinguished by levels of access--readily maps onto the Roman taxa. The closest English term I can find for the viae communales might be "expressway". If you said, "180,000 miles of highways and expressways" would that better approximate the right meaning? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaius Paulinus Maximus Posted July 17, 2007 Report Share Posted July 17, 2007 (edited) Thanks for clearing that up Maty. On reflection, 'highways' might be wrong. Any suggestions for a road which is more than a back road, but not necessarily a consular or praetorian road? 'Paved road', 'all weather road?' Secondary road ?? Edited July 17, 2007 by Gaius Paulinus Maximus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maty Posted July 17, 2007 Report Share Posted July 17, 2007 In any case, I was completely unaware of and would love to read the archaeological survey you referenced Maty. Would you happen to have any more information on it in your notes? I think I even have that - try either La rete stradale romana fra Brescia, Bergamo e Milano. Vecchie e nuove prospettive (Coradazzi, 1974). or if it was not there, its the even more chunky Strade romane: Percorsi e infrastrutture: Rome, Bretschneider 1993 (Gigli Quilici) sicuramente, nell Italiano, invece ... in my Bibliography suggestions I have also Ray Laurence, ,The Roads of Roman Italy Routledge 1999 E. Ruoff-V Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ASCLEPIADES Posted July 18, 2007 Report Share Posted July 18, 2007 In any case, I was completely unaware of and would love to read the archaeological survey you referenced Maty. Would you happen to have any more information on it in your notes? I think I even have that - try either La rete stradale romana fra Brescia, Bergamo e Milano. Vecchie e nuove prospettive (Coradazzi, 1974). or if it was not there, its the even more chunky Strade romane: Percorsi e infrastrutture: Rome, Bretschneider 1993 (Gigli Quilici) sicuramente, nell Italiano, invece ... in my Bibliography suggestions I have also Ray Laurence, ,The Roads of Roman Italy Routledge 1999 E. Ruoff-V Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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