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.

Aarhus

A team of researchers from Spain and Denmark has developed a comprehensive digital map of the Roman Empire's road network, uncovering an additional 100,000 kilometres of ancient roads. By utilizing satellite surveys, topographical maps, and advanced software, the study demonstrates that the Roman Empire's road system spanned almost 300,000 kilometres, comparable in scale to the modern European Union.

The new open-access dataset, named Itinerary, allows users to explore Roman roads across the empire as they existed around 150 CE. The map, described as a 'Google Maps of the ancient world,' includes a route-finding tool and provides valuable data for analyzing trade, movement, and the historical development of the region. The findings were published in the journal Scientific Data.

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. Using the oldest satellite surveys, topographical maps and software, they found that the Roman Empire was the size of the European Union, with nearly 300,000 kilometres of road. Now for the first time having access to the spatially detailed open data set of Roman roads allows us to understand where did these phenomena flow through this massive region? What was the impact? What were areas that were particularly vulnerable, particularly susceptible? And what is the overall development over very long timescales of these phenomena that have really shaped our history? Roads were good for trade and keeping the residents of Rome well fed. They also helped the empire expand by conquering cities that lay alongside pre-existing roads. It conquered areas that were already densely urbanised with a vast net of existing roads. The Romans continued to use them. They upgraded them. An important contribution by the Romans is that they connected up all of those local road systems. So for a very first time, it was possible to move over land from Syria to Spain, for example, these vast distances. It was truly the first continental scale terrestrial transport infrastructure. The new high resolution open digital data set and map called itinerary covers roads throughout the Roman Empire around the year 150 CE. It's kind of like a GPS, like a Google Maps of the ancient world. What I want people to do is explore it, see where their houses, see where the nearest Roman road is. But what we've also created is this route finding tool. How do I get from Cologne in Germany to Rome over the Alps on a donkey? That is how the Romans travelled. It took a very long time. What were the connections followed? What was the path? You can do that for the very first time now. This study was led by researchers in Spain and Denmark and was published in the journal Scientific Data.

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