New digital map shows Roman Empire's vast network of roads

Africanews (in English)

New digital map shows Roman Empire's vast network of roads  It’s no secret that the Romans liked to build roads. But European researchers say they've discovered an extra 100,000 kilometres of Roman road that had been hidden over time, covered by new construction or fallen into disuse.  READ MORE : http://www.africanews.com/2025/11/06/new-digital-map-shows-roman-empires-vast-network-of-roads  Subscribe on our Dailymotion channel and receive all the latest news from the continent.    Africanews is available in English and French.  Website : www.africanews.com  Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/africanews.channel/  Twitter : https://twitter.com/africanews

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00:00It's no secret that the Romans liked to build roads,

00:04but European researchers say they've discovered an extra 100,000 kilometers.

00:10Using the oldest satellite surveys, topographical maps and software,

00:15they found that the Roman Empire was the size of the European Union,

00:19with nearly 300,000 kilometers of road.

00:23Now for the first time having access to the spatially detailed open data set of Roman roads,

00:29allows us to understand where did these phenomena flow through this massive region?

00:35What was the impact? What were areas that were particularly vulnerable, particularly susceptible?

00:40And what is the overall development over very long timescales of these phenomena that have really shaped our history?

00:48Roads were good for trade and keeping the residents of Rome well fed.

00:52They also helped the Empire expand by conquering cities that lay alongside pre-existing roads.

01:00It conquered areas that were already densely urbanized, with a vast net of existing roads.

01:06The Romans continued to use them, they upgraded them.

01:10An important contribution by the Romans is that they connected up all of those local road systems.

01:15So for the very first time, it was possible to move over land from Syria to Spain, for example, these vast distances.

01:22It was truly the first continental-scale terrestrial transport infrastructure.

01:27The new high-resolution open digital data settings map, called Itinerary,

01:33covers roads throughout the Roman Empire around the year 150 CE.

01:39It's kind of like a GPS, like a Google Maps of the ancient world.

01:45What I want people to do is explore it, see where their house is, see where the nearest Roman road is.

01:50But what we've also created is this route-finding tool.

01:54How do I get from Cologne in Germany to Rome over the Alps on a donkey?

02:00That is how the Romans traveled. It took a very long time.

02:03What were the connections followed? What was the path?

02:06You can do that for the very first time now.

02:08This study was led by researchers in Spain and Denmark and was published in the journal Scientific Data.

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