Oh also the person carrying a load of stones from a spot the road will be built to. Though maybe that was a part of the process if they layered different materials underneath the road, but it looks a bit deep to me.
That they did! It’s why their roads have lasted so long. A lot of the damage that happens to a road happens below the paved surface. By making the best roads obsessively-well-built, they’ve managed to last some 2000 years!
Imagine being one of the poor guys who had to carve the inscriptions on those mile blocks during any of the periods where Rome quickly cycled through emperors.
The inscriptions were given the name of the Emperor to designate which year it was built or commissioned in - Romans didn’t use any sensible system regularly, like numbering the years from a set date. So, luckily for the stone carvers, the Emperor’s name didn’t ever need to be replaced.
Oh, I thought it was so that people who had been away would know if there was a new emperor lol. Better for history since it’s a clear record of what emperors ordered what roads built. Know what portion of them survived to modern times?
Not sure. In places they were built over in the modern day, or repaired with modern techniques before “historical preservation” became a big thing, but there are a hell of a lot of them that still avoided those fates. Still-usable (for foot traffic) Roman roads positively litter Europe, even in Britain, which was the edge of the Empire. Thousands and thousands of miles’ worth.
That they did! It’s why their roads have lasted so long. A lot of the damage that happens to a road happens below the paved surface. By making the best roads obsessively-well-built, they’ve managed to last some 2000 years!
Those look better made than many roads today.
Imagine being one of the poor guys who had to carve the inscriptions on those mile blocks during any of the periods where Rome quickly cycled through emperors.
The inscriptions were given the name of the Emperor to designate which year it was built or commissioned in - Romans didn’t use any sensible system regularly, like numbering the years from a set date. So, luckily for the stone carvers, the Emperor’s name didn’t ever need to be replaced.
Oh, I thought it was so that people who had been away would know if there was a new emperor lol. Better for history since it’s a clear record of what emperors ordered what roads built. Know what portion of them survived to modern times?
Not sure. In places they were built over in the modern day, or repaired with modern techniques before “historical preservation” became a big thing, but there are a hell of a lot of them that still avoided those fates. Still-usable (for foot traffic) Roman roads positively litter Europe, even in Britain, which was the edge of the Empire. Thousands and thousands of miles’ worth.
That’s cool, thanks for the information!
Anytime!
Removed, occasionally, but not replaced
“We’re just gonna forget this one ever happened…”