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Roads Before the Romans
Everything You Need To Know About Roman Roads
Unlike traditional history books, this volume brings the past to life through vivid personal accounts from individuals who traveled and worked on these roads. By sharing the voices of engineers, laborers, soldiers, senators, and merchants, you will experience the hardships, triumphs, and daily realities of Roman road-building and travel. These stories provide a human perspective, making history feel immediate, relatable, and engaging.
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Topics include:
Roman Roads 101
Why Roman Roads Matter
Roads Before Rome
Who Built the Roads?
Cost of Roman Roads
Road Building Techniques
Life Along Roman Roads
Postal Service
Commerce on the Move
Religion and Roman Roads
Roads of War: The Military Network
Roads Across a Vast Empire
Roman Empire Decline
What Roman Roads Left Behind
Roads Before the Romans
The Roman road network, often regarded as one of history's most outstanding engineering achievements, didn’t emerge in isolation. Before the Romans set their first paving stone, earlier civilizations had already laid the groundwork—literally and figuratively—for developing sophisticated road systems.
The Earliest Roads: Mesopotamia and Egypt
Mesopotamia, often called the “cradle of civilization,” saw the earliest development of rudimentary roads around 4000 BCE. These were little more than packed dirt tracks created by repeated use rather than deliberate construction. Mesopotamian Tracks were primarily used for trade, connecting agricultural villages to more prominent city-states like Uruk and Babylon.
Trade routes, such as those connecting Mesopotamia to the Indus Valley, were crucial for exchanging textiles, spices, and metals. However, these paths lacked durability and were susceptible to erosion and flooding.
In ancient Egypt, roads like those used to build the pyramids were essential for monumental construction projects. The Egyptians built temporary routes using mudbrick, packed earth, and sand. They also developed an innovative method of transporting heavy stone blocks using sleds on roads lubricated with water to reduce friction.
One of the most famous examples is the “road” to the Giza pyramids. However, it was far from the structured road systems later developed by the Romans.
The Persian Contribution: The Royal Road
One of the most significant pre-Roman road systems was the Persian Royal Road, constructed under the Achaemenid Empire (550–330 BCE). This vast network stretched 1,500 miles from Susa in Persia to Sardis in Asia Minor. The road included well-maintained surfaces and waystations spaced regularly, providing food, rest, and fresh horses for travelers.
The Persian Royal Road introduced a courier system that allowed messages to travel the length of the Empire in days. This system inspired the Romans’ cursus publicus (state postal system), which they used to carry official messages and goods across their Empire.
Herodotus famously noted that “neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor darkness of night” could stop the couriers—a sentiment echoed in modern postal services.
Greek Roads: Paths of Culture and Ceremony
Greeks created roads primarily for religious and local purposes rather than for trade or military use. The Sacred Way, for instance, connected Athens to the sanctuary at Eleusis and was used for annual religious processions. While important culturally, these roads were often narrow and unpaved, limiting their utility for heavy transport.
The Greeks built paved streets for local transport within cities. In places like Athens, early urban planning laid out streets in grid patterns, prefiguring Roman city design.
Though not as extensive as Roman roads, Greek military paths connected key city-states like Sparta and Athens. Though inferior to Roman standards, the Greeks used these paths during the Peloponnesian War.
Italy Before Rome: Etruscans and Italic Tribes
The Etruscans dominated northern Italy before Rome’s rise. They were highly skilled engineers who built roads using packed earth and gravel to connect their cities, such as Veii and Tarquinia. Their roads often included drainage systems, a feature that Romans would later refine.
Central Italy was home to numerous tribes, such as the Samnites and the Sabines, who created mountain paths to connect their hilltop settlements. These paths were used primarily for local trade and communication, forming the basis for later Roman roads in regions like Campania and Umbria.
Most early roads were simple dirt tracks or gravel paths, easily eroded by weather or overuse. Unlike Roman roads, these routes lacked a structured foundation, making them unreliable for heavy transport or year-round use.
Each region or civilization had its own methods and materials, leading to inconsistencies in quality. For example, Persian roads were more advanced than Greek ones, while Etruscan roads varied greatly depending on local geography.
While some roads, like the Persian Royal Road, served large Empires, most pre-Roman roads were local in scope, connecting towns and cities within relatively small regions.
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Before Rome, roads were functional but limited in scope and durability. The Mesopotamians, Egyptians, Persians, and Greeks contributed to developing early road systems. Still, the Romans elevated road-building to an art and science. By learning from these predecessors and applying their innovations, the Romans created a road network that would define an Empire and leave a legacy still felt today.
From Bad and Mad Emperors to Gladiators and how the Roman Empire became the greatest ancient superpower.
This easy to read book tells the story of the Empire from start to finish. Chapters like
Order the book to find out who the emperors were, what they did and how they built the Roman Empire.
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Whether you're an enthusiast, a history buff, or simply someone intrigued by the past, "How often do you think about the Roman Empire?" is also the perfect present for your partner, family member, or friend.
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Everything you ever wanted to know about Roman Roads. Order the definitive all-in-one book about the Roman Empire's greatest gift to the world - their Roads.
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This easy-to-read book covers building techiniques, who engineered and built the roads and who travelled along them. Find out about way stations, milestones, who paid for the roads.
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Read the personal accounts of slaves and soldiers who built Roman Roads. Discover the stories of the poor, rich and religious people who thrived and died along 250,000 miles of Roman Roads.
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Where did Gladiators come from, how were they trained, what they did and how they faught?
Gladiator 2 is the ultimate guide to everything you ever wanted to know about these fearless fighters. Chapters include the story of Spartacus, and the brutal reality and the awe-inspiring spectacle of gladiatorial games.
Plus, read the personal accounts of the men, and women, who fought, who made them fight and how it was all about power and influence in the Roman Empire. Order online now, in paperback and on Kindle.
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