Roman Roads

The Romans were famous for their roads. Some Roman roads exist to this day, nearly 2000 years after they were made. Roman roads were superbly made. Why did the Romans put so much effort into building roads?

The Appian Way

Rome made a great deal of money from trade in urope. Some of this trade in!ol!ed transport by sea. "ore fre#uently, the Romans used roads. $lso with so much of Western urope con#uered by the Romans, the Romans needed roads to mo!e their troops around #uic%ly. &oorly built roads would not help this. When the Romans arri!ed in ngland, they found no roads to use. 'nstead they had to ma%e do with trac%s used by the (ritons. 't was not unusual for these trac%s to be in !ery poor condition as they were usually on high ground and open to all types of weather. $ good road system also made it easier for the emperors to control their empire as messages and orders could be sent #uic%ly. Roman roads were famed for being straight and well made. )owe!er, the Romans usually built roads around a natural obstacle rather than go through it. The Romans did not ha!e a compass or maps to help them build roads. )ow did they manage it? Sur!eyors used a tool called a groma. This was an instrument that had two pieces of wood nailed together so that they formed a s#uare cross with right*angles in all the corners. ach piece of wood had lead weights attached to the ends. When one lead weight from the same piece of wood lined up with the one in front of it, the sur!eyor %new that he had a straight line. +nce the sur!eyor was con!inced that he had mapped out a straight line, wooden posts were dug into the ground to mar% out the straight line. The road was built along this line. ,itches were dug either side of the road to allow for drainage. Roman roads tended to be

built higher than the le!el of earth around them - this, again, helped drainage. The bul% of the actual building was done by Roman soldiers. (y doing this, the Romans could rely on the gained expertise of the soldiers. The authorities could also rely on the fact that the soldiers would do the best they could for Rome - by building excellent roads. Roman roads were well used throughout the empire. )owe!er, many of those who used them had to wal% * including merchants * as chariots and horses were expensi!e. $ wealthy merchant could afford a wagon pulled by horses. The roads were built so that two of these wagons could pass on both sides of the roads. When the Romans left (ritain, the (ritons did not use their roads. .ot only roads were not used, but !illas, baths and other buildings were shunned by the (ritons because of their association with the Romans. $lso the (ritons did not %now how to %eep the roads in good repair as they had not been used by the Romans when the roads were built. Regardless of this, Roman roads were so well made that they lasted for centuries. The main roads went from /ondon to 0or% 1!ia /incoln2, /ondon to Wroxeter, /ondon to ,o!er and xeter to 0or% !ia (ath, 3irencester and /incoln.