The saying "all roads lead to Rome" turns out to be inaccurate when it comes to the Roman Empire's land transport system. A new analysis shows that Rome was not the most central city in the network. Constantinople, Antioch and Ankara played a more important role.
“When you look at all the land transport in the Roman Empire, there is one route that is the most central in the empire itself, and it does not pass through Rome“, says Tom Brugmans of Aarhus University, co-author of the study published in Nature Communications.
The route connected Africa, Asia and Europe
At its greatest territorial extent in 117 AD. The Roman Empire stretched from Britain to the Sahara and encompassed parts of Europe, Asia and Africa. Its area reached about 5.5 million sq km.
Rome was the political and economic heart of the empire, but its geographical position made it more important as a center for Mediterranean shipping than for land traffic. The most central land route ran along the North African coast, through the territory of modern-day Turkey and cities such as Antioch and Ankara, then through Constantinople and finally north of Rome via Milan.
The role of Constantinople was further strengthened after 324, when Emperor Constantine I moved the capital from Rome to the city. The reasons are strategic and economic, and its location between Europe and Asia made Constantinople an important hub for movement across the empire.
The atlas includes nearly 300,000 km of roads
The analysis uses the digital atlas Itiner-e, built using historical sources, archaeological reports, satellite images and older databases. It includes nearly 300,000 km of Roman roads.
However, the data has varying degrees of certainty. The location of only 2.7% of the routes is known for sure. About 90% are established with less precision, and approximately 7% are hypothetical.
The researchers emphasize that the roads were not always built in a straight line. In flat areas such as Western Europe and North Africa, the Romans often laid relatively straight routes. However, in difficult terrain, the routes followed the terrain and wound around.
Ancient routes continue to influence
The study shows significant continuity between ancient and modern roads. The Via Augusta, for example, stretched for almost 1,600 km from Gades, now Cadiz in southern Spain, to the Pyrenees in France. Parts of the Appian Way still retain original volcanic stones.
Most of the ancient routes have disappeared or been buried over the centuries. Scholars also warn that many roads in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East that are now called “Roman” were not actually built by the Romans.
The saying “all roads lead to Rome” itself does not originate from antiquity. It first appeared in writing in 1175 by the French poet Alain de Lille. An earlier contribution to the idea of Rome as a center was the "golden milepost", placed by Emperor Augustus in the Roman Forum in 20 BC. It symbolically marked the starting point of the main roads in the empire.
According to Francesca Fulminante from the University of Bristol, the results do not completely overturn previous ideas, but mathematically confirm observations that had been described in a more general form until then. The researchers plan to add river and sea connections to the model in the future.
Sources: NOVA, CNN