All roads led to Rome and to modern wealth

NOT only did all roads lead to Rome in the ancient world, they also led to modern-day prosperity.

A study has shown a correlation between the network of roads built by the Romans 2,000 years ago and cities, transport hubs and economic development today.

The web of Roman roads, from Hadrian’s Wall to North Africa and beyond, corresponds closely to contemporary patterns of urbanisation and industrialisation. Similarities are found in modernday London, Paris and Rome, as well as the Po Valley of northern Italy, where the Romans established Milan.

Danish economists from the University of Copenhagen said that their findings showed that Roman military and economic endeavours put down lasting roots.

Carl-johan Dalgaard and his team produced a map of roads of the Roman Empire at its peak, around AD 117, and compared it with a 2010 satellite image of Europe at night, with the most brightly illuminated areas indicating major cities, towns and motorways. They discovered a “remarkable pattern of persistence showing that greater Roman road density goes along with greater modern road density (and) greater economic activity in 2010.” Roman cities, military outposts and roads provided the template for economic development for the next two millennia, the academics suggest.

“Areas that attained greater road density during antiquity are characterised by a significantly higher road density today,” the research team wrote in their paper, which was published by Copenhagen University.

“Roman roads were linked to economic activity beyond antiquity and remain a strong and positive correlate of prosperity today.”

The only parts of the Roman Empire where there is not a correlation are in North Africa and the Middle East, where roads were abandoned as the Romans retreated, with local tribes reverting from horse and carts to camel caravans. As a result, the Roman roads fell into disrepair and vanished because there was no longer any use for them.

The development of the Middle East and North Africa subsequently took a very different course in history and both regions are now “considerably poorer” than Europe, the study said.