{"id":25754,"date":"2018-04-18T10:00:26","date_gmt":"2018-04-18T08:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ferrovial.com\/blog\/?p=25754"},"modified":"2025-12-11T23:53:55","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T22:53:55","slug":"for-the-romans-the-saying-curves-ahead-wouldnt-make-much-sense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ferrovial.com\/blog\/en\/2018\/04\/for-the-romans-the-saying-curves-ahead-wouldnt-make-much-sense\/","title":{"rendered":"For the Romans, the saying \u2018curves ahead\u2019 wouldn\u2019t make much sense"},"content":{"rendered":"

What comes to mind when we think of the Roman Empire? Its buildings, its disciplined army, its coins and accounting system? Probably all of these, as they all greatly influenced the development of our own civilization and are today a living memory of Roman culture.<\/p>\n

But if there is something really characteristic of the Roman Empire, it is the network of Roman roads<\/strong>, which allowed everything else to develop. Thanks to this prolific system of roadways which crossed all of Europe, it was possible to take construction know-how to other cities conquered by Rome, to transfer large armies wherever they were needed, and to unify Europe under one accounting system.<\/p>\n

But it is not only remarkable that the Romans, with their \u2018primitive\u2019 (in a purely chronological sense) technology, could build such a wide-ranging network of roads<\/strong> crossing hundreds of valleys. What is also striking is the way in which these roads were constructed. Wherever we look we can see straight lines crossing countries and connecting cities<\/strong>. For the Romans, the saying \u2018curves ahead\u2019 would not make much sense.<\/p>\n

How were Roman roads built?<\/h2>\n

In his article Roman roads from a modern perspective<\/em><\/a>, Jes\u00fas Rodr\u00edguez Morales highlights the fact that, already in the 2nd<\/sup> century BC, roads were built by private companies<\/strong> following a tendering process, and that all roads had kerbs. This is gleaned from a text by Livy (174 BC):<\/p>\n

\u2018These censors were the first to award contracts for paving the streets in cities with stones, the roads with gravel, for using bricks and also for building bridges at numerous points.\u2019<\/p>\n

In the same text, Morales talks of three types of Roman roads<\/strong>: dirt tracks, or viae terrenae<\/em>; roads using gravel, viae glarea iniectae <\/em>or stratae<\/em>; and roads paved with stone, or viae lapide stratae<\/em>. The last two are the ones we know today as Roman roads<\/strong>, and there is general consensus over how most of them were built, though there wasn\u2019t only one way of building them.<\/p>\n

\"Layers<\/p>\n

Different layers of the substructure of a Roman road in Pompei. (A) Packed and levelled earth, (B) Statumen<\/em> (stones) (C) Rubble, broken stones and lime, (D) Nucleus <\/em>(Kernel or bedding), (E) Dorsum <\/em>(stone blocks), (F) Crepido <\/em>(raised sidewalk), (G) Edge stones. Source and more information: J. D. Redding<\/a>.<\/h6>\n

In the 17th century, Nicol\u00e1s Bergier<\/a> put forward the idea that there were four one to one-and-a-half-metre thick layers surrounded by fulci <\/em>or side drains. The Romans attempted to maintain the same width of road over the entire Empire, though lack of building materials or construction difficulties meant that some of the roads were rather narrower.<\/p>\n

Although most of them were built as roads with a standard width, the sides were dismantled near churches and grazing fields when stone was required elsewhere, and this was the cheaper option. These roads generally fulfil two characteristics:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. They are mainly straight<\/strong>, or at least relatively straight, and it is interesting to note just how straight they are compared to our modern roads, which occasionally follow much more indirect routes to make space for railways, which need to be straighter.<\/strong><\/li>\n
  2. They have minimal incline<\/strong>, sometimes over hundreds of kilometres. It is rather amazing to verify with a level that the Romans were able to plan roads which crossed the whole of the Roman Empire without any great climbs, spanning huge distances and significant geographic features. Thanks to this, beasts and people didn\u2019t tire as much.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    This doesn\u2019t mean the Romans didn\u2019t do curves. The photo at the top of this article shows a slight curve. When the lay of the land made building in a straight line very difficult, the Romans built curves, but they tried to avoid them given their inefficiency. And in order to do so, they used the most advanced technology of the time.<\/p>\n

    The importance of technology in construction<\/h2>\n

    Today, most building projects are first carried out with virtual tools<\/a>, as in the case of the Guggenheim museum, for example. That\u2019s why when we look at the past we find it hard to see construction tools as advanced technology<\/strong>. But there were several of such tools which helped make the Roman Empire a great civilisation:<\/p>\n