A team of two dozen scientists have created Itiner-e, a spectacular digital road atlas of the Roman imperial world that functions just like Google Maps but for ancient highways that existed around the year 150 CE. This groundbreaking research project is the most expansive study on the topic to date, increasing the estimated length of the empire’s road system by over 60,000 miles and bringing the total mapped network to an astonishing 180,000 miles across more than 1 million square miles. The international team used archaeological and historical records, topographic maps, and satellite imagery to map roads stretching from Britain in the north to Morocco in the south, eastward to Syrian deserts, and throughout Turkey and Bulgaria.
At its height in the second century CE, the Roman Empire maintained 55 million people with a sophisticated network of stone, gravel, and sand highways that allowed travelers to move at 2.4 miles per hour thanks to their excellent condition. The digital atlas reveals that approximately one third of roads were highways while two thirds would be considered secondary roads today, with the precise locations of only 2.7 percent known with absolute certainty. Using Itiner-e, history enthusiasts can plan actual Roman road trips, like the 447 hour journey from Salamanca, Spain to northern Italy that would wind through the Pyrenees, past Toulouse along the Cote d’Azur, over the French Alps, and through Turin. This extraordinary digital project brings ancient history to life, allowing anyone to explore how Romans traveled their vast empire and proving that their engineering genius created transportation infrastructure that rivals our modern systems.
