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11:09
Transcript
0:01
I come from Chicago. Around here,
we like to say that there are two
0:05
seasons: winter, and road construction.
Every spring, orange cones appear along
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the highways, the lanes narrow, and big yellow
machines set to work. They grind up the asphalt
0:18
and batter down the curbs, and lay down endless
loads of gravel and concrete. When their work is
0:24
done, the highway’s a thing of beauty – for a few
months. Then a new crop of cracks and bumps and
0:30
potholes sprouts, and the cycle begins again.
Although most of America’s interstate highways
0:37
are only 50 or 60 years old, virtually all
of them have been rebuilt multiple times,
0:42
and some – like those around Chicago – have to
be almost constantly patched and resurfaced.
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0:48
When you compare the Roman roads, whose huge
paving stones and elegant bridges seem untouched
0:54
by millennia of wear and tear, it’s hard not
to think that our modern methods are lacking.
0:59
American expressways and Roman roads, of course,
were built with fundamentally different materials
1:05
for fundamentally different purposes. But
if nothing else, comparison has the effect
1:11
of accentuating the scale and achievements of
the Roman road network. By the second century,
1:17
there were well over 50,000 miles (that is, 80,000
kilometers) of Roman roads, radiating out from the
1:23
golden milestone in the Forum to every corner
of the Empire. Conduits of trade, instruments of
1:30
rule, monuments to the imperial order, they ran
in uncompromising lines through every terrain.
1:36
Roman roads skirted the burning edge of the
Sahara, where sand drifted among the milestones.
1:43
They ran through the marshes of northern
Europe, suspended on wooden pilings
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1:47
over seas of mud. They cut through the
heart of the Alps, grooved and banked to
1:52
prevent wagons from hurling over icy cliffs.
Perhaps the best sense of the network’s scale
1:58
comes from the so-called Peutinger Map,
a medieval copy of a late Roman atlas.
2:04
Though distorted to fit a narrow
scroll, the map is remarkably detailed,
2:08
featuring regions, peoples, and some 2,700 places,
all connected by the red lines of the Roman roads.
2:17
The distances between towns are carefully marked,
as are the waystations along the highways.
2:23
The Roman roads were equally impressive on the
ground. Designed by legionary surveyors and
2:28
engineers, and often built by detachments
of troops, they were marvels of practical
2:32
engineering. The most familiar method
of constructing them, used for the great
2:37
highways of central Italy, began with digging
the roadbed down to a firm layer of subsoil.
2:43
This trench was then filled with compacted layers
of rubble and gravel, and capped with a pavement
2:48
of local stone, which was crowned to shed
water and wedged in place with curb blocks.
2:54
There was always, however, a
great deal of regional variation.
2:59
Outside cities, roads were often surfaced
with gravel or packed dirt instead of paving
3:04
stones. In deserts, they might be little
more than a simple track cleared of rocks.
3:10
In swamps, on the other hand, they were
supported with an intricate underpinning
3:13
of beams and pilings. On the approaches to large
cities and in the most hazardous mountain passes,
3:20
ruts were sometimes carved into the pavement
to control traffic and prevent accidents.
3:26
The highways of Roman Italy were paved
to a width of 14 Roman feet (that is,
3:30
a little more than 4 meters), and often flanked
by gravel paths for riders and pedestrians. Tall
3:36
milestones stood along the shoulder, inscribed
with the name and titles of the reigning emperor
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and the distance to the nearest town or landmark.
Every few miles, a clump of trees might mark an
3:47
inn or country shrine. And when tombs began to
appear on the roadside, a city was never far away.
3:54
The Roman road network was designed,
first and foremost, for military use.
4:00
Soldiers built the roads, guarded their
strategic points, and used them constantly.
4:06
In fact, the whole design of the roads, with
their undeviating lines and long straight slopes,
4:11
was shaped by a single aim: allowing infantry to
march as quickly as possible from point to point.
4:18
The roads were used, however, by all kinds of
traffic. We might imagine a farmer and his mule
4:24
bringing a load of vegetables to market, a woman
walking to visit her mother in the next village,
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a wealthy man in a litter being carried to a
fashionable healing sanctuary, a shepherd herding
4:35
his flock along the roadside, and occasionally –
galloping along the bridle paths – a rider of the
4:41
imperial post, the Roman Empire’s swiftest
and most secure way of sending messages.
4:48
That brings us to this video’s sponsor, StartMail.
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4:55
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5:49
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5:53
Back on the road. Many aspects of the Roman
highways seem modern. They had waysides. They
5:59
had highway police. They had tolls. And
they were characterized by feats of civil
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engineering that would not be excelled until
the nineteenth century. Take, for example,
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the Roman road to the St. Bernard Passes of the
Alps, which sprang over mountain chasms, drove
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through boulder-strewn slopes, and culminated
in a spectacular rock cut more than 220 m long.
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The Roman roads were served
by thousands of bridges.
6:25
Hundreds of these have survived to
the present, and a remarkable number
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still carry traffic. One of the most impressive,
pictured in this video kindly sent by YouTuber
6:36
unOrdinaryWorld, is located in Merida,
Spain, the Roman Emerita Augusta.
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At 790 meters, this is the longest extant Roman
bridge. It was used by traffic until 1991.
6:52
Other bridges were even more impressive.
The Bridge of Augustus at Narni,
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for example, was up to 33 m high, and featured
a central arch 32 m wide. It seems to have stood
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more or less intact until the Middle Ages,
when it was partly leveled by earthquakes.
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The Romans also carved road tunnels
through dangerous mountain terrain.
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Perhaps the most famous example is in the Furlo
Pass, where a tunnel 40 m long and wide enough
7:18
for two lanes of wagon traffic carried
the Via Flaminia through a high ridge.
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The tunnel was used by cars until the 1980’s.
Perhaps most awe-inspiring section of the entire
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Roman road network was located on what
is now the border of Serbia and Romania,
7:34
where the Danube rushes through the
rugged gorge called the Iron Gates.
7:39
Just below the Gates, Trajan erected the greatest
of all Roman bridges, a kilometer-long leviathan
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supported by 20 immense piers. Upstream,
Trajan’s engineers hacked a highway
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through the riverside cliffs, suspending part
of the roadbed over the water on enormous beams.
7:57
Roman roads were designed to carry the traffic
of their day – riders, wagons, and (above all)
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marching soldiers – in any weather. They were
meant to be both convenience and symbol, and
8:09
served both purposes well. The sheer durability
of the system, with its hundreds of still
8:15
functioning bridges, is incredible. But the Roman
roads, like any roads, were far from immortal.
8:23
Milestones record numerous repairs and
reconstructions of the major roads.
8:27
The inscriptions sometimes mention damage
caused by heavy rain or flash floods,
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but the most common causes given for
repair are age and wear. The famous
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Via Appia, which ran from Rome to Brundisium,
was repaired many times over the centuries,
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and repeatedly improved with new bridges
and viaducts. One inscription notes
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the resurfacing of a worn-out section of
limestone paving with hard-wearing basalt.
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Despite the awesome longevity of their bridges,
most Roman roads vanished during the Middle
8:55
Ages, their paving stones buried or were pulled
up for reuse, their grassy beds and half-filled
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ditches running uncannily straight to nowhere.
Yet in the early modern period, when European
8:59
engineers began to build new highways,
they consciously imitated the Roman roads,
9:03
sometimes to the point of trying to reconstruct an
ancient road network. The pioneering road-building
9:09
methods of John McAdam, likewise, were
partly inspired by Roman techniques.
9:16
Modern expressways, however, are very different
beasts from Roman roads. First and foremost,
9:22
they’re designed to carry motor vehicles, which
are not only heavier than horse-drawn carts,
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but also far faster and much more numerous.
In terms of sheer stress, a busy section of
9:33
American highway probably takes more punishment in
a single day than most Roman roads did in a year.
9:39
Modern roads are engineered to handle those
enormous stresses without being prohibitively
9:44
expensive to build. In practice, that means a lot
of reinforced concrete and asphalt. Though highly
9:51
effective, and cost-effective, these materials
begin to break down fairly quickly under heavy
9:57
traffic. In this sense, and in the sense that even
most expressway bridges in America are designed to
10:03
last only a half-century or so, modern highways
really are less durable than the Roman roads.
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All this means, of course, is that modern
highways serve a different purpose from their
10:14
ancient predecessors. The Roman roads weren’t
better engineered; they’re just products of
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construction methods perfectly tailored to the
traffic and terrain of the ancient Mediterranean.
10:26
The fact that ancient and modern
highways aren’t directly comparable,
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however, does nothing to diminish
the achievement of the roads
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that were one of the greatest products and
most enduring legacies of the Roman peace.
10:39
If you enjoyed this video, please consider
supporting toldinstone on Patreon. You might also
10:44
enjoy my book, Naked Statues, Fat Gladiators,
and War Elephants. Thanks for watching.
— end of transcript —
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