Roads of the Roman Empire

Roman roads were essential to the growth and maintenance of the Roman Empire.

The first major Roman road ‘Appian Way’, was built in 312 B.C. between republican Rome and its allies in Capua.

Ancient Roman roads overlaid on a modern road map of Italy

Roman roads used to move officials, civilians, armies, and trade. Ways of the Empire were of different kinds, varying from small provincial roads to broad, long-distance roadways built to unite large cities, chief towns, and military posts. These significant roads were surfaced with stone and metaled, cambered for drainage, and were flanked by walkways, bridle path, and drainage trenches. They were set along ideally studied courses, and some were made through hills, canyons, and rivers.

At the zenith of the Roman Empire’s growth, about 29 large military roadways radiated from the Rome, and 372 great roads interconnected the late Roman Empire’s 113 provinces. The whole covered more than 400 thousand km (250 thousand mi) of roads, of which above 80.5 thousand km (50 thousand mi) were stone-paved.

In Gaul only, no less than 21 thousand km (13 thousand mi) of highways to have been improved, and in Britain at least 4 thousand kilometres (2,500 mi). The system of roads in Iberia totalled some 10.5 thousand kilometres (6.5 thousand miles).

Tabula Peutingeriana: ancient road network map of the Roman Empire

Roman Roads of Britain

The Roman roads and the current ones in Spain

The journey to the most remote places of the empire took 35 days.

Travel times when departing from Rome in the Roman Empire

Numerous Roman roads remained for millennia; some contemporary routes cover some highways of the Roman Empire.