Transcript Roman Roads - WLPCS Middle School

Roman Roads
Pathway to an Empire
Via Appia
The first Roman road, built in 312BCE.
Why did the Romans need
roads?
First and foremost—military needs. The army needs to move its
supplies (impedimenta) and its camp materials (castra) many
hundreds of miles. Roads provide speed and ease of travel for
Rome’s many legions.
Economic needs - in order to bring supplies, money, and
commerce to places, Rome needs an easy and obvious way to
get food, construction material, and other supplies to the city.
Governing needs - a government needs fast information and
communication to effectively rule their land. Roads promote
faster, and more frequent communication between towns,
rulers, armies, and peoples.
The Map of Roman Roads:
http://www.ancient.eu/map_pela
gios/
Construction
How to build a lasting road.
On the right: the Via Appia in
common use in Rome today.
Who built the roads?
Nearly always soldiers.
Roman Roads were a series of
layers
There were anywhere from 4-8 steps when making a Roman
road, but we will look at the most common one.
First, Romans needed to make sure that they were building a
road that was straight, level, and the correct length.
Roads that were flat, straight, and uniform would be better
maintained, easier for people and animals to travel on, and
faster. (The fastest path between two points is a straight line).
They accomplished this using measuring rods (basically, a
yard stick) and a tool called a groma
Tools of the trade
A groma has four
weights on each end of
the cross on its top.
When the tool is flat,
the weights form a 90
degree angle, ensuring
that the road is flat in all
directions.
First step: dig a
trench
Romans dug a “fossa” and
laid curbstones on either
side.
Many roads also had
drainage ditches on each
side of the road.
Next steps: fill in the layers of the
road
Bottom layer: compacted sand or earth - the
pavimentum
Base layer: large flat (or crushed and flattened) rocks
mixed with cement- the statumen
Next layer: coarse (rough and bumpy) concrete - the
rudus
Next layer: smooth and thin concrete - the nucleus
Top layer: shaped, large rocks fit in snugly, shaped
like a hunch - the summa crusta
Curvature of Roman
roads
Effectively and cheaply drains the road.
Why have so many layers?
The layers of the road act sort of like a sponge: they
can withstand lots of weight and abuse from all the
traffic, but still retain its shape.
The layers of concrete and rock also resist erosion
from water, shifting earth, animal and plant
destruction, and other natural climatic effects.
The top layer is easy to maintain—just pull out any
broken/warped stones, and replace with a new one.
Stubborn Romans
The Romans, when building roads, generally did
not avoid obstacles like swamps, mountains,
cliffs, and rivers.
They usually went over or through them by any
means.
One prominent example is in Tarracina, where
the emperor Trajan had his workers dig 100 feet
down into pure rock, in order to keep the road
straight.
Pathfinding with
milestones
Roman roads were built with
milestones (miliaria) that gave
geographical information—most
importantly, how far away the
Roman Forum is.
These miliaria enabled
travelers to find their way to
Rome from nearly any part of
the Roman Empire.
The milestones also listed
nearby cities in a list called an
itinerium.