DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42497#0291
Ancient Streets and Roads.
191
At S. Passera remains of the pavement of the old road may be
seen with the substructure, and at Pian due Torri are remains of
some tombs.
The mere inspection of the remains of the roads of the ancient
Romans is sufficient to shew that there is no exaggeration in the
words of Strabo and Dionysius,—that their roads, with their aque-
ducts and their drains, were among the wonders of the world.
These roads were not merely paved with polygonal blocks of basaltic
lavap, but also, to make them as short as possible, they were carried
in straight lines over hill and dale, the tops of the hills cut through
by deep trenches, as we see still in many places, for these great
works of antiquity can never be effaced; or carried across valleys on
embankments when necessary, as we may also see. By means of
these roads or streets (zAs), placed under the inspection of persons
of distinction called Curcctores viarum, the Romans in their capital
city could communicate with the principal cities of the world as then
known; so that it became a true proverb, that “ all roads lead to
Rome.”
Another invention, entirely Roman, was, and is still, of the greatest
convenience everywhere, that of putting a cippus, or milliarium, or
milestone, with the number upon it at each mile on every high road.
This happy invention we owe, according to Plutarch, to the Tribune
Caius Gracchus.
The manner of constructing these roads is described by Statius q,
and we may see this verified in hundreds of examplesr. These magni-
ficent roads were made to last a thousand years, as they have done
wherever they have not been disturbed. For this reason, before the
invention of railroads, there was no more convenient mode of trans-
porting armies and all the machines of war, than had been used by
the ancient Romans to keep the command over every corner of
their enormous Empire.
p Isidorus (Orig., lib. xv. c. 16, de
Itin.) says that the Romans learned
from the Carthaginians the art of making
paved roads.
** ‘ ‘ Quis duri silicis, gravisque ferri
Immanis sonus, sequum propinquum
Saxosse latus Appise replevin”
(Statii, Sylv., lib. iv. § 3.)
r Champollion Figeac. Cantu Storia
Univers., tom. iii. n. 29.
191
At S. Passera remains of the pavement of the old road may be
seen with the substructure, and at Pian due Torri are remains of
some tombs.
The mere inspection of the remains of the roads of the ancient
Romans is sufficient to shew that there is no exaggeration in the
words of Strabo and Dionysius,—that their roads, with their aque-
ducts and their drains, were among the wonders of the world.
These roads were not merely paved with polygonal blocks of basaltic
lavap, but also, to make them as short as possible, they were carried
in straight lines over hill and dale, the tops of the hills cut through
by deep trenches, as we see still in many places, for these great
works of antiquity can never be effaced; or carried across valleys on
embankments when necessary, as we may also see. By means of
these roads or streets (zAs), placed under the inspection of persons
of distinction called Curcctores viarum, the Romans in their capital
city could communicate with the principal cities of the world as then
known; so that it became a true proverb, that “ all roads lead to
Rome.”
Another invention, entirely Roman, was, and is still, of the greatest
convenience everywhere, that of putting a cippus, or milliarium, or
milestone, with the number upon it at each mile on every high road.
This happy invention we owe, according to Plutarch, to the Tribune
Caius Gracchus.
The manner of constructing these roads is described by Statius q,
and we may see this verified in hundreds of examplesr. These magni-
ficent roads were made to last a thousand years, as they have done
wherever they have not been disturbed. For this reason, before the
invention of railroads, there was no more convenient mode of trans-
porting armies and all the machines of war, than had been used by
the ancient Romans to keep the command over every corner of
their enormous Empire.
p Isidorus (Orig., lib. xv. c. 16, de
Itin.) says that the Romans learned
from the Carthaginians the art of making
paved roads.
** ‘ ‘ Quis duri silicis, gravisque ferri
Immanis sonus, sequum propinquum
Saxosse latus Appise replevin”
(Statii, Sylv., lib. iv. § 3.)
r Champollion Figeac. Cantu Storia
Univers., tom. iii. n. 29.