Technical Norms and Legal Rules on the Construction and Administration of Roman Roads
Published Jul 1, 2013 · Aurel Zaharia
Contemporary Readings in Law and Social Justice
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Abstract
ABSTRACT.The road (from Latin via) is the defining element of Roman civilization and also a legacy still visible in many countries of the European continent, including Romania. The road network of the Roman Empire served some strategic interests, to protect or pacify its provinces, and also some economic interests, providing a safe movement of goods and, ultimately achieving the unity of the Roman world. The paper describes the main classifications of different types of roads.Keywords: roads, Roman Empire, legal rules1. The History of RoadsAll advanced civilizations from ancient times depended on roads, their multitude and condition, and therefore they had to allot them resources and give them priority. Roads have been found over time, some of them of great beauty and demonstrating an advanced design technique, in the successive kingdoms of Mesopotamia, Sumer, Babylon and Assyria. Texts and clay maps where roads appear have been preserved; Egypt had a rudimentary postal service, Persia invented the postal relays, etc. taken and perfected by the Romans. But none of those civilizations gave more civilizing importance to roads than the Romans.The road (Latin via) is one of the defining elements of Roman civilization and also a legacy still visible in many countries of the European continent, including Romania. The road network of the Roman Empire served some strategic interests, to protect or pacify its provinces, and also some economic interests, providing a safe movement of goods and, ultimately achieving the unity of the Roman world.Roads were designed by Roman engineers who were choosing routes based on geo-morphological characteristics of the region, usually avoiding holms and the exposed ridges of heights, embankments being located at mid slope. The Romans always preferred straight paths, which often resulted in steep slopes of the road, difficultly practicable for transporting goods; over time, it became necessary to build routes more accessible to trade traffic. The most famous rules regarding the execution of Roman roads are found in the work of Vitruvius "De Architectura" which describes in detail the composition of the four layers of material forming the road beds. Depending on the structure of land, different constructive solutions were adopted, Ulpianus distinguishing three main categories of roads: roads of compacted earth (viae terrenae), roads paved with gravel (viae glareae stratae) and roads covered with carved stone slabs (viae silicae stratae). The road axis was often over raised, to ensure rainwater draining, the same effect being other times achieved by creating a side slope. Very impressive are the road sectors built after the embankment technique, necessary in swampy areas or in the mountains, exposed to heavy snowfalls. As for the road width, that varied considerably, starting from 2 meters and reaching even 15 meters, depending on the importance of that artery. Distances were marked using landmarks "milliarium," the name of which derived from the main unit for distance, the Roman mile, which measured 1,478.50 m. During the reign of Augustus, the forum of Rome was located "milliarium aureum," symbolic reference point from which the biggest communications axis of the Empire began.The road construction was carried out by the Roman army, each legion with its own architects who established routes and technical solutions, the actual execution being the result of soldiers' work. The management and maintenance of roads were provided in Italy by "curator viarum," while on the territory of the imperial provinces, they were the responsibility of "legati Augusti pro praetore," necessary funds coming mainly from the imperial treasury, but also from contributions of municipalities or private citizens, especially for roads under the jurisdiction of local communities or crossing private properties. The first roads were natural paths of trodden ground. The idea of arranging them and then turning that idea into a primary concern for the creation and maintenance of a road system seems to have been taken over by the Romans from the Etruscans, like many other attributes from their future civilization. …
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