City of Rome street names

[VeniVici]

Ave!

 

I am new to the forums and for my first newbie question I am after a list of ancient Rome street names. If this doesn't exist could anyone tell me how they named their streets, alleys etc?

 

 

Many thanks in advance

[Nephele]

You'll find a great list of ancient Roman street names here:

 

"Vici" from A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome

 

Welcome to UNRV!

 

-- Nephele

[VeniVici]

You'll find a great list of ancient Roman street names here:

 

"Vici" from A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome

 

Welcome to UNRV!

 

-- Nephele

 

Thankyou very much and thanks for the speedy reply. Would you also be able to tell me how they named their streets? and did they all have Vicus infront of the name? I seem to remember seeing Via

[Nephele]

Yes, the term via was used by the Romans for streets and roads. (e.g. Via Appia). The term vicus had several meanings, but within towns it denoted a block of buildings bounded by streets and alleys. (reference: Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities)

 

-- Nephele

[Klingan]

From what I've understood had most roman city streets no official names. As an example have we found no streets names in neither Pompeii nor Herculaneum. All the names tourists find there today are modern. I guess though that most major streets must have had names in the minds of the citizens back in the days. Maybe they stuck and in the end were as good as official ones that we put up on our streets today.

 

I must admit thou that I find it very interesting that almost all of the streets named in your link Nephale comes from CIL hinting to us that the names were more then just temporary descriptions.

[Gaius Paulinus Maximus]

Here's another couple of links to go along with the one supplied by Nephele.

 

 

The first is an interesting article from Smith's Dictionary -

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roma...IGRA*/Viae.html

 

The second is from good old Wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_road

[caldrail]

From what I've understood had most roman city streets no official names.

 

The size of roman towns is somewhat smaller than today, and since people generally had little else to do but gossip about other peoples business, anyone seeking an adress had only to ask around - someone would know where they lived, and a few directions from a landmark within the town would suffice. Rome was of course much larger but the same principle applies, and since that city contained 'ghettoes' of varying nationalities, its a fair bet there were sub-communities that keptt track of goings-on. Given the level of junk mail they received was nothing like today, I doubt the romans had much problem with street names, since major roads were sometimes named and used as landmarks in themselves.

[Klingan]

From what I've understood had most roman city streets no official names.

 

The size of roman towns is somewhat smaller than today, and since people generally had little else to do but gossip about other peoples business, anyone seeking an adress had only to ask around - someone would know where they lived, and a few directions from a landmark within the town would suffice. Rome was of course much larger but the same principle applies, and since that city contained 'ghettoes' of varying nationalities, its a fair bet there were sub-communities that keptt track of goings-on. Given the level of junk mail they received was nothing like today, I doubt the romans had much problem with street names, since major roads were sometimes named and used as landmarks in themselves.

 

I would very much consider Pompeii a minor city in the empire and yet, no mater how much time they ever had for gossip, I would not recommend trying to ask your way to someones house in a city of between 6.000-20.000, unless the person was very prominent.

 

If they had a problem with street names then? Probably not since we do not find very many names, but I think we should find other reasons then only gossip behind it.

Edited October 20, 2008 by Klingan

[Northern Neil]

The thought occurs that more often than not, Roman buildings are ruinous and tend to stand little more than shoulder height. Buildings taller than his have long since lost their stucco and limewashing. If streets in towns did have names then they may have been written high up on buildings at junctions, much as today.

[Klingan]

The thought occurs that more often than not, Roman buildings are ruinous and tend to stand little more than shoulder height. Buildings taller than his have long since lost their stucco and limewashing. If streets in towns did have names then they may have been written high up on buildings at junctions, much as today.

 

Well there are roman cities preserved well enough to give us street names if they had them carved into the building. (Pompeii, Herculaneu, Ostia, timgad etc). Informal names then are a completely different story.