Roman Rooooooaaddss Take Me Hooooooooommee

 

Roman roads paved the way for the expansion of the Roman empire, literally. Clearly, they were doing something right because thousands of years later, we still use very similar road construction techniques. Although road construction was not nearly as focused on in ancient writings as monuments or cities, Statius wrote a poem outlining the technique.[1] Before construction could begin, there were certain factors that played important roles in determining the course of these roads. The most prominent being the topography of the area, in relatively flat landscapes there was more choice in where the road was built but as construction moved through hills and mountains, construction had to become more adaptive to the area.[2] The ditches were the first to be prepared, there wasn’t a set depth for the ditches as many different factors came into play.[3] After the ditches were complete, the road was then constructed in layers. 

Diagram showing the different layers of ancient roads, to be explained in detail. 

Credit: Encyclopedia Britannica

The bottom layer called the stratum, was made of the natural ground that had been dug and levelled and then laid with stones at least 30 cm thick. The next layer was called the rudus, this was made by mixing stones with lime mortar, and was about as thick as the stratum. The next layer, called the nucleus was made of gravel that was levelled and packed down. Lastly the pavimentum, whose composition depended on the importance of the road and the materials available in the area. The pavimentum could be made of gravel, small broken stones, irregular slabs of siliceous stone, hard lime or cut basaltic stones.[4] 

Modern example of what a road with a pavimentum of cut stones looks like. 

Credit: Alayna Krueger 

The construction of roads evolved over time, including adaptation in materials, such as swapping out river sand for volcanic sand which had more mechanical resistance.[5] Evidently this was a very evolved process and took many hours of labour and hard work but just as with everything else, the romans had learned over time how to perfect it. Evident by the sheer amount of roads they built.

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[1] Knapton, John. "The Romans and their roads—The original small element pavement technologists." In 5th International Concrete Block Paving Conference, Tel-Aviv, Israel, vol. 13. 1996. 41.

[2] Bekker-Nielsen, Tønnes. "New approaches to the study of Roman roads." In Report to the 19th International Congress of Historical Sciences, Oslo, vol. 6. 2000. 2.

[3] Knapton, 43.

[4] Corradi, L., S. Rasimelli, M. Marchetti, S. Corradi, S. Batino, and M. Corradi. "The Building

Techniques of the Roman Roads: the Via Flaminia from Narni to Forum Flaminium, in Umbria." In Extraordinary machines and structures in antiquity. Peri Technon, 2001. 120.

[5] Corradi, et al., 121.

Bibliography

Bekker-Nielsen, Tønnes. "New approaches to the study of Roman roads." In Report to the 19th

International Congress of Historical Sciences, Oslo, vol. 6, p. 23. 2000.

 

Corradi, L., S. Rasimelli, M. Marchetti, S. Corradi, S. Batino, and M. Corradi. "The Building

Techniques of the Roman Roads: the Via Flaminia from Narni to Forum Flaminium, in Umbria." In Extraordinary machines and structures in antiquity. Peri Technon, 2001.

 

Knapton, John. "The Romans and their roads—The original small element pavement

technologists." In 5th International Concrete Block Paving Conference, Tel-Aviv, Israel, vol. 13. 1996.