Via Appia and Roman Roads
Perhaps the most famous road in Ancient History is the Via Appia, a 132-mile stretch of pavement from Rome to Capua. It was started in 312 BC, and had been extended to Brundisium by 244 BC, a length of 234 miles. Roadside tombs can still be seen, and functioning bridges still exist.
Other Major Roads
The Via Cassia branches off Via Flaminia at Ponte Milvio and leads to northern Italy through Viterbo, Siena and Florence.
The Via Flaminia starts at Porta del Popolo and it leads northwards to Rimini, a town on the Adriatic Sea; locations near Rome along Via Flaminia shown in this website: Prima Porta and Malborghetto.
The Via Salaria starts at Porta Salaria and it leads eastwards to S. Benedetto del Tronto again on the Adriatic Sea through Rieti and Ascoli.
The Via Nomentana starts at Porta Pia and it leads to the small town of Nomentum, today Mentana.
The Via Tiburtina starts at Porta Tiburtina and it leads to Tivoli, the ancient Tibur.
The Via Prenestina starts at Porta Maggiore and it leads to Palestrina, the ancient Preneste.
The Via Casilina starts at Porta Maggiore and it leads to Casinum, today Cassino; locations near Rome along Via Casilina shown in this website: SS. Pietro e Marcellino.
The Via Tuscolana starts near Porta S. Giovanni and it leads to Tusculum, an ancient town, now abandoned near Frascati.
The Via Ardeatina branches off Via Appia near Basilica di S. Sebastiano and it leads to Ardea, a small town near the Tyrrhenian Sea.
The Via Ostiense starts at Porta S. Paolo and it leads to Ostia.
The Via Portuense starts at Porta Portese and it leads to the lost harbour of Porto.
The Via Aurelia starts at Porta S. Pancrazio and it leads to France through Civitavecchia, Pisa and Genoa.
The Via Trionfale's name derives by the fact that the consuls or the emperors returning to Rome after a victory preferred to branch off Via Cassia and enter Rome through Ponte Trionfale.
History and Architecture
Roman roads were a vital part of the development of the Roman state, from about 500 BC through the expansion during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. Roman roads enabled the Romans to move armies and trade goods and to communicate.
The Roman road system spanned more than 400,000 km of roads, including over 80,500 km of paved roads. When Rome reached the height of its power, no fewer than 29 great military highways radiated from the city. Hills were cut through and deep ravines filled in.
At one point, the Roman Empire was divided into 113 provinces traversed by 372 great road links. In Gaul alone, no less than 21,000 km of road are said to have been improved, and in Britain at least 4,000 km. There were footpaths on each side of the road.
The Romans became adept at constructing roads, which they called viae. They were intended for carrying material from one location to another. It was permitted to walk or pass and drive cattle, vehicles, or traffic of any description along the path. The viae differed from the many other smaller or rougher roads, bridle-paths, drifts, and tracks. To make the roads the Romans used stones, broken stones mixed with cement and sand, cement mixed with broken tiles, curving stones - so the water could drain, and on the top they used tightly packed paving stones.
The Roman road networks were important both in maintaining the stability of the empire and for its expansion. The legions made good time on them, and some are still used millennia later. In later antiquity, these roads played an important part in Roman military reverses by offering avenues of invasion to the barbarians.
The laws of the Twelve Tables, dated to approximately 450 BC, specified that a road shall be 8 ft (2.45 m) wide where straight and 16 ft (4.90 m) where curved. Actual practices varied from this standard. The Tables command Romans to build roads and give wayfarers the right to pass over private land where the road is in disrepair. Building roads that would not need frequent repair therefore became an ideological objective, as well as building them as straight as possible in order to build the narrowest roads possible, and thus save on material.
Roman law defined the right to use a road as a servitus, or claim. The ius eundi ("right of going") established a claim to use an iter, or footpath, across private land; the ius agendi ("right of driving"), an actus, or carriage track. A via combined both types of servitutes, provided it was of the proper width, which was determined by an arbiter. The default width was the latitudo legitima of 8 ft (2.4 m). In these rather dry laws we can see the prevalence of the public domain over the private, which characterized the republic.
Roman law and tradition forbade the use of vehicles in urban areas, except in certain cases. Married women and government officials on business could ride. The Lex Iulia Municipalis restricted commercial carts to night-time access to the city within the walls and within a mile outside the walls.