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I come from Chicago. Around here, 
we like to say that there are two

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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

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and batter down the curbs, and lay down endless 
loads of gravel and concrete. When their work is

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done, the highway’s a thing of beauty – for a few 
months. Then a new crop of cracks and bumps and

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potholes sprouts, and the cycle begins again.
Although most of America’s interstate highways

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are only 50 or 60 years old, virtually all 
of them have been rebuilt multiple times,

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and some – like those around Chicago – have to 
be almost constantly patched and resurfaced.

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When you compare the Roman roads, whose huge 
paving stones and elegant bridges seem untouched

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by millennia of wear and tear, it’s hard not 
to think that our modern methods are lacking.

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American expressways and Roman roads, of course, 
were built with fundamentally different materials

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for fundamentally different purposes. But 
if nothing else, comparison has the effect

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of accentuating the scale and achievements of 
the Roman road network. By the second century,

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there were well over 50,000 miles (that is, 80,000 
kilometers) of Roman roads, radiating out from the

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golden milestone in the Forum to every corner 
of the Empire. Conduits of trade, instruments of

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rule, monuments to the imperial order, they ran 
in uncompromising lines through every terrain.

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Roman roads skirted the burning edge of the 
Sahara, where sand drifted among the milestones.

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They ran through the marshes of northern 
Europe, suspended on wooden pilings

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over seas of mud. They cut through the 
heart of the Alps, grooved and banked to

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prevent wagons from hurling over icy cliffs.
Perhaps the best sense of the network’s scale

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comes from the so-called Peutinger Map, 
a medieval copy of a late Roman atlas.

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Though distorted to fit a narrow 
scroll, the map is remarkably detailed,

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featuring regions, peoples, and some 2,700 places, 
all connected by the red lines of the Roman roads.

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The distances between towns are carefully marked, 
as are the waystations along the highways.

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The Roman roads were equally impressive on the 
ground. Designed by legionary surveyors and

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engineers, and often built by detachments 
of troops, they were marvels of practical

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engineering. The most familiar method 
of constructing them, used for the great

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highways of central Italy, began with digging 
the roadbed down to a firm layer of subsoil.

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This trench was then filled with compacted layers 
of rubble and gravel, and capped with a pavement

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of local stone, which was crowned to shed 
water and wedged in place with curb blocks.

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There was always, however, a 
great deal of regional variation.

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Outside cities, roads were often surfaced 
with gravel or packed dirt instead of paving

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stones. In deserts, they might be little 
more than a simple track cleared of rocks.

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In swamps, on the other hand, they were 
supported with an intricate underpinning

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of beams and pilings. On the approaches to large 
cities and in the most hazardous mountain passes,

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ruts were sometimes carved into the pavement 
to control traffic and prevent accidents.

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The highways of Roman Italy were paved 
to a width of 14 Roman feet (that is,

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a little more than 4 meters), and often flanked 
by gravel paths for riders and pedestrians. Tall

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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

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inn or country shrine. And when tombs began to 
appear on the roadside, a city was never far away.

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The Roman road network was designed, 
first and foremost, for military use.

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Soldiers built the roads, guarded their 
strategic points, and used them constantly.

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In fact, the whole design of the roads, with 
their undeviating lines and long straight slopes,

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was shaped by a single aim: allowing infantry to 
march as quickly as possible from point to point.

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The roads were used, however, by all kinds of 
traffic. We might imagine a farmer and his mule

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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

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his flock along the roadside, and occasionally – 
galloping along the bridle paths – a rider of the

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Back on the road. Many aspects of the Roman 
highways seem modern. They had waysides. They

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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.

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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

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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.

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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

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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,

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where the Danube rushes through the 
rugged gorge called the Iron Gates.

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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.

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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

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served both purposes well. The sheer durability 
of the system, with its hundreds of still

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functioning bridges, is incredible. But the Roman 
roads, like any roads, were far from immortal.

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Milestones record numerous repairs and 
reconstructions of the major roads.

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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

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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

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engineers began to build new highways, 
they consciously imitated the Roman roads,

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sometimes to the point of trying to reconstruct an 
ancient road network. The pioneering road-building

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methods of John McAdam, likewise, were 
partly inspired by Roman techniques.

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Modern expressways, however, are very different 
beasts from Roman roads. First and foremost,

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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

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American highway probably takes more punishment in 
a single day than most Roman roads did in a year.

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Modern roads are engineered to handle those 
enormous stresses without being prohibitively

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expensive to build. In practice, that means a lot 
of reinforced concrete and asphalt. Though highly

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effective, and cost-effective, these materials 
begin to break down fairly quickly under heavy

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traffic. In this sense, and in the sense that even 
most expressway bridges in America are designed to

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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

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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.

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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.

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If you enjoyed this video, please consider 
supporting toldinstone on Patreon. You might also

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enjoy my book, Naked Statues, Fat Gladiators, 
and War Elephants. Thanks for watching.