Unpaved Roads In Ancient Rome

It all started in the invasion of Britain; the Roman army was forced into using old grass and mud track trails the Britons created, Roman Roads describes the roads as “Track ways that were sometimes thousands of years old and often went up and down hills for reasons that nobody could remember.” To add, the Roman legions needed new roads to move quicker to areas of trouble in Britain to keep them under control, and Roman generals also needed better roads to relay orders from soldiers stationed as far away as Hadrian’s wall. Good roads meant better trade on land making Rome and it’s emperor richer from taxes. Roman soldiers were given the task of planning and building roads, Roman Roads implies that “Roads did not always run perfectly straight, and they sometimes zig-zagged up hills and avoided obstacles, but the long stretches of roman roads that ran straight were the ones they remember today. These roman roads were so straight due to an instrument called the Groma, a pair of boards stuck together in a cross-shaped figure. Which had lines with weights hung from each corner to get a straight line by lining the weights with a pole a hundred meters away. They then dug ditches from each side to take the role of the drains, the earth from the ditches would be piled into the center and rammed down into a flat shape. Stones were then gathered and laid down into multiple layers as the means

In document 8, the “flowing aqueducts” of the Roman Empire greatly increased the ability for people to live in very condensed areas, and therefore making the empire more efficient by allowing more people to live in smaller areas. The elected officials in each respected empire noted that, because of the technological advances, the empress benefited. Thus showing that the ideas of man to invent and reinvent are not always broken causes. Document 6 states that, the romans had very advanced roads built, roads built to last thousands of years. “For the roads were built to carry straight through the country without wavering and were paved with quarried stone and made solid by tightly packed sand.” This quote shows that, because of how technologically advanced the Romans were, they were able to build these roads, roads that still last

While expanding their empires, the Han and Rome each created thousands of miles of roads. These roads helped move armies and connect

One example of a Roman Contribution are the Roman Roads. They were very important to the economy and the of the Romans. They allowed for easier trade between towns and cities the roads were made out of concrete. They were built by the Roman army during the times of peace and prosperity also known as Pax Romana. As the new areas were conquered a new road would be built connecting it to the rest of the empire.

Both Rome and Han China equivalently constructed similar roads, bridges, and water development systems all to strengthen their economy. Verifications of this can be seen when Rome fully realized the potential of arches and bridges in their road systems that spanned more than 400,000 km of roads that were used for trade. Correspondingly, they also built aqueducts as a form of water engineering to constantly bring in a flow of water to the cities and towns. Similarly, Han China built massive fortified roadways for trade and walls for fortification comparable to the Great Wall of China as a means of defense. Also in comparison to Roman aqueducts, Han China built water canals as means to direct water as they pleased. These similarities defined their engineering skills as these inventions and constructions were used to help strengthen their economies. Rome built and constructed roads to aid their trade systems and make easier routes of travel. Furthermore, they used aqueducts to get water into the city saving money and the need for human labor. Similarly, Han China used their fortified roads to trade much easier and as a means of safer travel. This went hand in hand with China’s water canals that also aided their economy by directing water where needed saving much money and limiting the need for human labor as well.

To continue, the Roman empire allowed the advancement of technology because of how most of the documents concerning the Roman empire talked about how Government officials spoke positively about the advancements in technology. In Document #6 the high official, Plutarch, talk about how the Roman political leader Gaius Gracchus put a lot of time into the advancement of the roads in the empire. Plutarch talked about how Gaius made constant improvements to the roads like placing pillars of stone at certain points along the road as a distant marker to help travelers and merchants to judge distances. As well as creating stepping stones to help horse-back riders mount their horses. This all relates to the Advancements of technology as the distance pillars show the creation of easier distance tracking and mapping of the area as engineers had to have made the pillars and placed them in certain places that accurately represents the distance. Not only this but the stepping stones are a sign of advancements uses for the pillar as they are used for the creation for distance pillars,

For the roads were carried straight through the country without wavering, and were paved with quarried stone, and made solid with masses of tightly packed sand. Hollows were filled up and bridges were built across whatever wintry streams or ravines cut the roads. And both sides were an equal and parallel height with the result that the road for its entire course had a level and beautiful appearance.” The Romans took great pride in their roads and all other projects because they had a great sense of nationalism. They really cared about their country being the best in everyway and most beautiful.

To know Rome is to know the Forum, the political, religious, and economic epicenter of the city, and of the streets that lead to and from this, the heart of the city, and stretch to the gates of the city and beyond. The roads, in fact, led all over the roman empire, and were notable for their

Silk became a symbol of high status. Most Romans were infatuated with silk and were willing to pay and travel for it. Sea Roads transported bulk goods for everyone whereas the Silk Roads were limited to luxury items for the wealthy. Merchants from the Roman Empire (Greeks, Syrians, and Jews) established settlements in southern India and along the coast of East Africa. This created a longterm cultural impact on trade. Most trade was taken by ship. Huge shipwrecks from the time of the Roman Empire have been found by archaeologists. There was an extensive trade network to take produce to the towns. The Empire can be seen as a system to take produce from the provinces to the city of Rome. The Romans built straight, paved roads, such as the Via Appia in Italy. In Britain, Watling Street ran from London to Wroxeter in Shropshire. It was a saying that 'all roads lead to Rome', and the routes and remains of many of them still

The fourth factor was the amazing engineers, inventors, and architects in the Empire. By 200 AD the Romans had built 53,000 miles of roads throughout the Empire. The very first was built in 312 BC. They also invented sewers, central heating systems, and the first types of concrete. (Mahoney, 2001)

     In addition, to the Roman government, the modern world has been influenced by Roman architecture as well. In every country and every state these days you will find roads or some type of paved road system. This derived from early Roman architectures. The Romans were the first to set up a highly advanced concrete road system that would aide in traveling. Although not as sophisticated as today's roads, the concrete used was not much different from what is used today. In fact the Roman constructed roads are still intact today. Along with road

These technological achievements credited to the Romans were rather only improvements made by the Romans to inventions previously discovered by earlier societies. Concrete is the only invention that can solely be credited to the Romans. As stated earlier the remains of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius were discovered by Romans, as well as the idea of mixing these remains with water. Aside from concrete, all technological achievements credited to the Romans were only improvements on ideas borrowed from others (Boatwright). Roads can be dated back to Mesopotamia. The earliest roads served the sole purpose of allowing wagons and chariots to easily pass through cities. Some were built from brick and asphalt or limestone slabs, but it is not until the Roman improvement to make roads deeper and more durable that roads received national recognition. Although early societies in Mesopotamia had created roads long before the Romans, the Romans borrowed this technology and improved it to increase the productivity of their own expansion (Roads). India is known to have some of the

These roads were so well built that some of them are still in use by modern travelers. Romans knew that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line and built their roads incredibly straight, stretching for miles without a single turn. The use of stone in building roads enabled people to travel during inclement weather while dirt roads may remain too muddy to travel upon for many days after a hard rain. The Ancient Romans also knew of a road building technique that escapes the builders of modern roads in states such as Florida. This technique is known as crowning, this involves making the center of the roads higher than the sides, with a gradual slope to allow water to run off the sides instead of collecting in the middle. By the time the great Roman Empire fell, the Roman Army had built roads connecting all of their empire to Rome.

One of the things the Romans were famous for was their road system. There is a reason for the quote “All roads lead to Rome” (Doc.3) because it is definitely true. For example the Romans had over 85,000 km. of roads across their empire (Doc.3). There were three main uses of the Roman roads.

Greek didn’t have the technologies to make these roads. Another thing Rome was good at was making bridges. If Rome had to cross a river to get to a battle, they built a well-made bridge and marched their soldiers across it. The Greeks, although advanced, were not advanced enough to be able to build these great wonders quickly and efficiently.