Roman Roads :)

The Romans were very famous for their roads. Even today, people use the Roman roads to get from one place to another. The roads were so popular because of the 50, 000 miles of paved road coming from the center of Rome, which was the Roman Empire. The Romans used these roads mostly for trading, which is part of why the Romans were such great traders.

When the Roman roads were first built, it was planned that they would be built straight, but over time, this changed. Roadbeds were built three feet down and twenty feet across. After this, it was filled with gravel and sand to build the foundation. The Romans were very maticulate about their roads, so they even lined the sides of the roads with blocks and hand-carved stones. These stones were more than not pentagonal in shape. They were also fitted together to make the top layer of the road. The roads were sloped from the center to allow any water that may have gathered on the road to wash and drain off the road into ditches on the sides of the roads. There was also stone markers that were places along the road to tell the traveler how far to the next city.

So, as I said above, the Romans used the roads mostly for trade. Rome made a very large amount of money from trading with Europe. Some of this trading involoved sea transportation, but most frequently, the Romans used the roads. Also, with so much of Western Europe conquered by the Romans, they needed to use the roads to move around their troops quickly. The building of these roads was also very, very expensive.

At about every eleven or twelve miles, there was a place where the people and animals could stop and rest, almost like a reststop like we have today. As time went on, people would form groups to give these travellers service to whatever they needed, whether it was food, or whatever, they would help them.

As you can see, these Roman roads helped the Roman society very much because the roads helped to provide transportation to the Romans when they would trade or use the roads for the soldiers. Some of these roads are still there today, and you can see the importance of them as you drive along them. :)