SOCIAL SCIENCE

THE IMPORTANCE OF ROMAN  ROADS


Why did the Romans build straight roads?


     They built roads as straight as possible, in order to travel as quickly as they could.


     Winding roads took longer to get to the place you wanted to go and bandits and robbers could be hiding around bends.
The surface of a Roman road was shaped into a camber so that rain water would run off into the ditches. Roman roads were very quick and safe to travel large distances. The Roman soldiers were not the only people to use them. Merchants used them to carry goods all over the Roman Empire.





The Roman roads were notable for their straightness, solid foundations, cambered surfaces facilitating drainage, and use of concrete made from pozzolana (volcanic ash) and lime.
They were the key to Rome's military might  as the soldiers could move faster. The first major Roman road—the famed Appian Way, or “queen of the roads”—was constructed in 312 B.C. to serve as a supply route between republican Rome and its allies in Capua during the Second Samnite War. From then on, road systems often sprang from Roman conquest.
Almost all of the Roman roads are still in use today. To take this further, almost all the roads EVER built are in use today. They have been paved over where cars need to drive over them, or paved for pedestrians.