Why Did Rome: How Did Romans Get Around?

How did the Romans get around? They obviously did not have cars or planes to get from place to place? We know for a fact that the Romans had quite the empire built. How where they able to transport goods, trade, or even keep each province in touch with the empire’s news and gossip of the time? Well, it really only comes down to their roads, animals, and most of all, their ships. Within the empire it was pertinent for the military to be able to get to anywhere in the empire, and fairly fast at that. The Romans had around 55,000 miles of paved road that connected virtually every part of the empire. This vast network of roads gave the Roman military a total range of about 4,000 miles. 4,000 miles was more than enough to cover all of the empire, and even a few miles past the empire’s boundaries. The roads weren’t just for the military, they were also made for traders, and just everyday travelers. Now, let’s talk about the roads themselves. The roads almost always were in a perfectly straight line, even if that meant going up large hills. The roads were made out of four layers. The uppermost layer of the road was a flat pavement made from hard plat stones, concrete, or pebbles set in mortar. The other three

To get from point A to B, the fastest way was just to walk there with nothing but a shirt on your back. If you had to bring supplies from point A to B, it was quite the chore. In this time they had developed what we would call a transport cart. These carts were usually pulled by oxen, a slow but powerful animal. These ancient carts did not even have wheels. You had to use long logs as wheels. To do this you would have to manually move a log in front of the cart, and when the cart passed over the log you would have to get the next log from the back and carry the log to the front of the cart then repeat. This process was slow and laborious, therefore, at the time most people just traveled by