Saturday, March 1, 2008

Roman Roads


The Roman roads were built for very specific reasons. One reason was for army's behalf. The other reason was for the fact of speed and trade. These roads help advance the Roman culture far ahead of its time.

The Roman army had a hard time getting around Britain because of all of the mud and grass tracks. It was a pain for the army to travel in this matter especially when the roads went in ways no one could figure out. It took a lot of extra time to follow the paths laid out by the British. This is one of the reasons for the building of the Roman roads. (Hadas 56)

Another reason for the building of the roads was the fact that trade and easy moving about the country wasn't so easy. Trade took a lot more time than it should have and
the emperor was greatly affected by speed as well. More trade and the faster it went the more taxing the emperor could do. This was very important to the emperor.

The Roman roads were built in a certain way too, like the way our roads are built only a little bit more old fashioned. There was a ditch for drainage and the roads were tri leveled. The first level was large stones or tiles, the second level was small stones, and the top level was gravel or cobbles. Over the tri leveled road was a curved surface called a camber. The large stones provide support for the travelers and the curved arch of the road helped with drainage. The small stones provided a hard enough surface for the travelers above and all of their belongings.Source

In conclusion the Roman roads had two main purposes. The helped with trade but more importantly the helped with the transporting of the Roman soldiers. These roads paved the way for the roads of our time. (Barnett 89)

Barnett, Mary. Gods and Myths of the Romans: The Archaeology and Mythology of Ancient
Peoples.
Smithmark Publishers. New York. 1996

Hadas, Moses. Imperial Rome. Time Inc Publishers. Canada 1965