New Study Challenges the Famous Saying That “All Roads Lead to Rome”

Several cities in the Roman Empire—including Antioch, Ankara, Byzantium and Corinth—were better connected by land than Rome, according to new research.

The proverb “all roads lead to Rome” may be famous, but new research suggests it was far from true in ancient times. An extensive analysis of the Roman Empire’s road network has revealed that several other cities were more centrally connected than the Eternal City.

Major cities such as Antioch, Ancira—modern-day Ankara—Byzantium, now Istanbul, and Corinth in Greece were “better located than Rome” for people traveling by land, researchers said in a paper published Tuesday, September 15, in Nature Communications.

At its peak in A.D. 117, the Roman Empire covered about 2.1 million square miles (5.5 million square kilometers) around the Mediterranean Sea, encompassing much of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

Which Roman cities were best connected?

For years, scientists have been creating a vast digital atlas called Itiner-e, which maps about 186,000 miles (300,000 kilometers) of Roman roads. For the new study, researchers used the atlas to calculate how closely connected Roman cities were to the wider road network.

The results showed that the empire’s most important land-based transit route did not pass through Rome.

“It follows the coast of North Africa and the Levant, past Antioch to near Ankara, crosses into Europe at Constantinople, and enters France through the Po Valley and Milan,” study co-author Tom Bluemans, a professor of classical archaeology at Denmark’s Aarhus University, told Live Science in an email.

Other cities were also important transportation hubs. Corinth was well connected because the road through the city linked the Greek Peloponnese with the rest of Greece. Ankara was a major transportation center for Anatolia, helping explain its strong connection to the Roman road network.

Why Rome was not the most connected city by road

Rome’s unique geographic position may be the main reason it was not as well connected to the Roman road network as some other cities.

“The Italian peninsula is an appendage of the imperial road network, and Rome is in one half of this appendage,” Bluemans said. “Considering all the movement across the Italian peninsula, we were shocked to discover that the most central road actually bypasses Rome completely and follows the Adriatic coastline on the other side.”

Image credit: Tom Brughmans

Roman roads were often built in straight lines when the landscape allowed, although they were not as straight as modern roads.

Modern road construction aims to create straighter routes by significantly altering the topography. This approach helps avoid sharp turns and allows cars to travel faster, thanks to modern surveying and construction methods, the researchers wrote.

Rome’s roads were only part of the transportation network

Although the study reveals important connections within the Roman road system, roads were not the only way people and goods moved across the empire. Rome may have relied on sea and river traffic more than land-based transportation.

Image credit: Tom Brughmans

Rome’s central location in the empire made it an important hub for water transport, even though the study did not examine waterways.

“Rome’s central location is not because of its roads, but because of its physical location in the heart of the Mediterranean, at the intersection of major sea routes,” Bluemans explained.

The researchers said future studies should examine sea and river traffic and combine those results with the analysis of Roman roads. Considering land and water routes together could give researchers a clearer picture of how people, goods and information moved through the Roman Empire.

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