THE ROADS OF ROMAN ITALY THE ROADS OF ROMAN ITALY Mobility and Cultural Change Ray Laurence London and New York First published 1999 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2002. © 1999 Ray Laurence The right of Ray Laurence to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Laurence, Ray, 1963– The roads of Roman Italy; mobility and cultural change/Ray Laurence. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Roads, Roman—Italy. 2. Rome—Economic conditions. 3. Transportation—Social aspects—Rome. I. Title. DG28.5.L38 1999 388.1´0937–dc21 99–20446 CIP ISBN 0-415-16616-0 (hardbound) ISBN 0-203-06241-8 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-21526-5 (Glassbook Format) CONTENTS List of figures vii List of tables x Preface xi Acknowledgements xiii 1 Introduction 1 2 Mastering space: road building 312–44 BC 11 3 Town foundation in Roman Italy 300–30 BC 27 4 The politics of road building 39 5 Technological change 58 6 Time and distance 78 7 Transport economics 95 8 Inland waterways 109 9 Mules and muleteers: the scale of the transport economy 123 10 A mobile culture? 136 11 Viewing towns—generating space 148 12 Tota Italia: naming Italy 162 v CONTENTS 13 The extension of state power 177 14 Space-time in Roman Italy 187 Bibliography 200 Index 215 vi LIST OF FIGURES 1.1 Roads follow low ridges of hills; mountain ranges limit the possibilities of transport 3 1.2 The major roads of Italy 4 1.3 Remains of a Roman road in the Ager Sabinus 6 1.4 The ancient Via Aurelia beneath the modern road of the same name at Luni 9 2.1 The development of the road system 14 2.2 Roman settlement and colonisation down to 241 BC 16 2.3 Via Appia: bridge at Beneventum 20 2.4 Via Flaminia at Carsulae 23 3.1 Forum Novum: basilica lies under the canopies to the right close to the actual forum, to the left the large tomb forms the edge of the monumental centre 28 3.2 Grave stele from Forum Novum reused in the building of medieval Selci 31 4.1 Trajanic coin: Italia Restituta 40 4.2 Augustan coin: Aug. Munien 43 4.3 Arch of Augustus at Rimini 44 4.4 Bridge of Tiberius at Rimini 45 4.5 Road data through time 48 4.6 Trajanic coin: Via Traiana 49 4.7 Trajanic coin: Alimenta 49 4.8 Detail from the Arch of Trajan at Beneventum 50 4.9 Arch of Trajan at Ancona 52 4.10 A private road bridge in south Etruria inscribed on the keystone: T.Humanus stabilio fecit in privato transientibus 55 4.11 Paved diverticulum in south Etruria 56 5.1 Ancient plan showing public and private roads 60 5.2 Eroded road surface of the Via Traiana 63 5.3 Via Amerina south of Falerii Novi: the total width of the road was not paved 63 5.4 The Clivus Capitolinus in Rome 68 vii LIST OF FIGURES 5.5 Limestone paving of a road leading from the Via Flaminia to the Tiber 68 5.6 Quarry face at Monte Maggiore in the Monti Sabatini 69 5.7 Selce Opus Reticulatum: south Etruria 70 5.8 Road abutment and paving on the road from Ostia to Portus at Isola Sacra 74 5.9 The Ponte d’Augusto at Narnia 76 6.1 Road cutting on the Via Appia at Terracina 79 6.2 The Via Traiana at Egnazia 80 6.3 Milestones in situ on the Via Salaria 83 6.4 Listing of towns in the Antonine Itineraries (southern Italy) 87 6.5 Inter-centre distances in the Antonine Itineraries (Italy) 88 6.6 Spacing of towns on the Via Appia and Via Latina from Rome to Beneventum 91 6.7 Spacing of towns on the Via Appia and Via Domitiana from Rome to Cumae 91 6.8 Spacing of towns on the Via Appia and Via Traiana from Beneventum to Brindisi 92 8.1 Dried up river: the Aia in the Sabina (September 1998) 110 8.2 Dam across a river for an aqueduct intake at Lucus Feroniae 112 8.3 Coastal plain north of Cumae 115 8.4 The Po plain in the first century BC 116 8.5 Canals north of Ravenna 117 9.1 Mules in the Sabina 124 9.2 Mules pulling a magistrate’s raeda 127 9.3 Commemorative coin of Agrippina pulled by mules 130 9.4 Commemorative coin of Germanicus pulled by circus horses 130 10.1 Raeda in mosaic in the baths of the Cisiari at Ostia 137 10.2 Commemorative coin showing a carpentum issued under Domitian 137 10.3 Litter from the Capitoline Museum 138 10.4 A plaustrum on a tombstone from Beneventum 143 11.1 Via Appia through the town of Minturnae 151 11.2 Plan of Minturnae 152 11.3 Via Appia in front of the capitolium and theatre at Minturnae 153 11.4 Via Appia and forum at Terracina 155 11.5 Sanctuary of Jupiter Anxur at Terracina 157 11.6 Tombs on the Via Flaminia at Ocriculum 158 11.7 The Amphitheatre at Luni 159 11.8 The forum of Herdonia and the Via Traiana 160 12.1 The eleven Augustan regions 164 viii LIST OF FIGURES 14.1 Mount Soracte 188 14.2 Monumental tomb at Forum Novum 190 14.3 Artificial platform for a temple(?) at Ocriculum 193 14.4 Bridge at Fosso dei Tre Ponti on the Via Amerina 196 14.5 A road viaduct maintains a flat surface for the traveller across a valley, Ponte del Diavolo on the Via Salaria 198 ix LIST OF TABLES 5.1 Milestones recording the repair of the Via Appia 66 6.1 Spacing of towns in the Antonine Itineraries: major roads from Rome 88 6.2 Spacing of towns in the Antonine Itineraries: northern Italy 89 6.3 Spacing of towns in the Antonine Itineraries: Alpine routes 89 6.4 Spacing of towns in the Antonine Itineraries: Adriatic coast/Picenum 89 6.5 Spacing of towns in the Antonine Itineraries: southern Italy 90 x PREFACE History is the writing of the historical imagination in the present. For myself, this book is the way I view an aspect of the past. Although in places based on the work of others, what is in this book is the way I see their past as opposed to how they may have written it. The reader of this history should be aware that their own view of The Roads of Roman Italy need not be the same as mine. To have the opportunity and the ability to write history is a privilege that has incurred many debts of gratitude and these need to be acknowledged. The opportunity was provided by the British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellowship scheme from 1993–6 initially and continued at the University of Reading subsequently after my appointment to a lectureship. I am grateful to my colleagues (present and past), both classical and archaeological, at Reading for tolerating my subject area that fails to define itself within a traditional definition of what is ancient history or what is archaeology. Further thanks are due to the British Academy and the Hugh Last Fund of the British School at Rome for financially supporting visits to libraries and sites in Italy. The British School at Rome has continued to provide an academic environment for study. I would like thank Valerie Scott for advice and permission to use the School’s archive, and Helen Patterson for her enthusiastic discussion of communications in the Tiber Valley. The latter’s patience and that of Shawn Graham, and Mary Harlow in the search for the remains of road structures in the Tiber Valley should also be acknowledged. My debts to those in the past who have shown me how to write history must be acknowledged. Three people should be acknowledged for having put themselves out when they did not need to. Jeremy Paterson, Keith Hopwood and Peter Slade in their very different and highly personable ways showed me how to write history and gave me the confidence to do so. In writing this book though, my mind was drawn back further to the innovative teaching of Kathleen M.West, who showed me a long time ago that there was more than one way to think about the problems of solving a learning difficulty. I still find it startling to express my thoughts on paper xi PREFACE and realise the immense debts that I owe to these people every time I do so. They all have my very warmest thanks—without their individual interventions this book would not exist. Many have helped in the writing of this book: in terms of ideas Colin Adams, John Creighton, Elio Lo Cascio, Janet DeLaine, Mike Fulford, Martin Millett, Helen Patterson and Andrew Wallace-Hadrill have found time to discuss various points and ideas that are put forward here.