How developed is the traffic in Rome? Why do you say "all roads lead to Rome"?

1. "All roads lead to Rome", an ancient Roman transportation network across Asia, Africa and Europe.

The Roman Empire has a vast territory, spanning three continents: Asia, Africa and Europe. In order to connect distant administrative regions, the ancient Romans designed and built a developed transportation network to achieve this goal.

The proverb "All roads lead to Rome" comes from the complete land and water transportation roads built during the Roman Empire.

Roman empire territory

On the waterway, the Roman Empire, which absorbed the ancient Greek culture, attached great importance to maritime traffic. Relying on their powerful national strength and advanced shipbuilding technology, the Roman Empire built a convenient waterway with sailboats. During the prosperity of the Roman Empire, they had controlled the main waterway transportation routes in the Mediterranean for hundreds of years.

On land, the Roman Empire divided the territory into three categories: the Senate province, the emperor province and the local province, and then "built the Imperial Avenue in each province" around it to achieve the purpose of connecting the whole country.

Note: There are only three provinces managed by the Senate, the emperor and the local provinces, but not by the Roman Empire. In fact, there are dozens of provinces under the three criteria.

In the heyday of ancient Rome, 80,000 kilometers of Imperial Avenue was built, through which most areas including Britain, Africa, Arabia and the Near East could be reached from Rome.

Roman empire transportation network

How did the ancient Romans establish such a complete transportation network? What role can it play in the daily life of the Romans?

Second, the complete traffic construction in ancient Rome: adjust the road construction plan according to local conditions and maintain order by traffic law.

In A.D. 107, Emperor Trajan of the Roman Empire held a grand beast-fighting conference in the Colosseum to celebrate his victory after defeating the eastern European army. The animals in this activity include 10000 wild animals mainly from Africa, including lions and elephants.

The Colosseum, also known as the Colosseum and the Colosseum Flavi, is located in the center of Rome, the capital of Italy. It was once a place where citizens and nobles of the ancient Roman Empire watched gladiators duel and fight animals.

The selection of African wild animals, on the one hand, reflected the majesty of the Roman emperor, on the other hand, was due to the variety of African wild animals at that time, which could meet the needs of the Colosseum in Rome.

On the premise that there was no mechanized transportation more than 1900 years ago, the Romans needed to build a huge transportation network, which included the design of transportation, the construction of roads and the necessary traffic regulations to maintain traffic order.

The Colosseum The Colosseum of Death in Rome.

The means of transportation commonly used by ancient Romans: mule, donkey, carriage, ox cart and sailboat.

In ancient Rome, the main means of transportation were carts pulled by various animals and sloops.

Because the territory is too vast, the topography and climate of the provinces of the ancient Roman Empire are different, so the Romans chose different means of transportation in the face of different situations.

For example, the European plain is flat, and caravans to and from Europe usually choose horses as their first choice for travel; Caravans planning to travel to southern and eastern provinces will choose camels to carry their belongings, considering that there is little rain and drought all the year round and there is a large desert area in the middle. When caravans from two neighboring provinces trade in bulk, mules and donkeys with better endurance than horses will be more favored by businessmen.

Caravans Walking on the Gobi Desert

The ancient Romans were able to produce the most advanced paddle sailboat on the European continent at that time, which was a "high-tech" product based on ancient Greek sailboats.

The two ends of the paddle sailboat are inclined, with square sails hanging from the single mast, triangular sails hanging from the front and rear ends of the boat, and huge paddles on both sides of the boat. To make this kind of boat run, many paddlers are needed to paddle together.

Roman battleship

The merchant ships in ancient Rome were about 30 to 55 meters long. They traveled back and forth between the Nile River in Egypt, ancient Greece and India, bringing back hundreds of tons of goods every trip.

Businessmen will bring ancient Greek olive oil and wine to Persia for carpets and precious stones, or go to India to trade local spices and animals. Nile grain, marble, granite, iron, copper and other materials were also needed by the Roman Empire.

Where there is interest, there is crime. Pirates often haunt the Mediterranean region in an attempt to gain wealth by robbing Roman merchant ships. In order to maintain maritime trade, the Roman navy also patrolled the sea and wiped out pirates.

Patrol the sea

Durable Roman road: choose wooden pavement in soft soil area and arch design in rainy area.

The Romans not only loved to build roads, but also accumulated rich experience in this respect, and were able to adjust and build different types of roads according to different geological environments.

In areas with loose soil or swamps, the Romans would put wooden stakes under the ground, then lay wooden boards on it, and then lay a layer of gravel as the road surface to increase the bearing capacity of the ground and avoid the situation that people can't pull their feet out when walking on the road.

In rainy areas, the Romans raised the foundation of the road slightly higher than the surrounding ground, forming an arch with a high middle and low sides, and then built drainage ditches on both sides of the road. In this way, when it rains, the rainwater will flow away along the drainage ditch, and the damage of rainwater to the road surface will be reduced, and the road can be used for a longer time.

However, among the roads built by the Romans, the Imperial Avenue built with mixed materials is the most durable. This avenue is a expressway with a thickness of 1.5m, which is composed of sand, gravel and a cement-like material.

Arched pavement, for reference only

Roman traffic law

With the commercial prosperity of ancient Rome, various types of "carriages" (mules) and "buses" (horses) kept coming and going. Without constraints, the developed transportation network is also facing the embarrassing situation of traffic jams.

Faced with this situation, the Roman Senate enacted a special traffic law.

At the beginning, the elders stipulated that the sidewalks should be separated from the roads where vehicles pass, and special warning signs and parking lots should be set up to solve the problems of vehicles stopping and leaving, vehicles driving on the street hitting people and so on.

Later, the Senate found that this alone could not solve the traffic congestion on the streets, so they stipulated a "restriction order": some vehicles were not allowed to appear on the streets of the city during the day; Different types of roads can only be driven by vehicles with corresponding specifications, such as boardwalks in swamp areas, and caravans loaded with heavy objects cannot pass.

Third, the ancient Rome travel guide: convenient transportation, plus the prosperity of ancient Rome's tourism, commerce and catering industry.

Rome's convenient transportation has promoted the development of tourism. In ancient Rome, there were writers who wrote travel guides.

From the travel notes of the Romans, we can know that a travel manual named Etina Laria prevailed in ancient Rome, which marked the famous scenic spots, historical sites and places where wolves might appear as reminders.

Ancient Roman banquet

Merchants in ancient Rome were particularly interesting. They will cooperate with the merchants who distribute travel brochures and let them design a "reasonable" route in front of their stores in order to promote the business of their stores.

People who will do this are generally businessmen who open inns, bathrooms and restaurants at home. They will provide some relatively convenient services for travelers, so even if they see through the doorway, they will gladly accept this commercial marketing method.

It must be said that the Romans thousands of years ago did make amazing achievements in commerce, law, art and urban construction.