It may be asked whether
months. That may have been so: for the acces- sion of Pertinax, the most conclusive case known
to us, falls in January, the stormiest month of the year.
But it is perhaps more probable that when the northern route was established it superseded
the other: it was for many reasons convenient to have permanent travel: moreover,
and unvarying conditions of at least during the decay that characterized the administration of the 3rd cent., it is unlikely that more than one route was main- tained permanently with a full working postal establishment. é
2. The country of the Upper Danube, Rheetia, etc., was approached by the Augustan Way over the Brenner Pass (vid Claudia Augusta).
3. Gaul and its adjuncts and tyrants, the two provinces of the Rhine frontier, Lower and Upper Germany, were approached by several roads: (a) The Flaminian Way to Ayiminum, and the Amilian Way to Placentia, continued to Milan and the Alps, and across the Cottian Alps (Mont Genevre) to Arles (Arelate), or the Graian Alps (Little St. Bernard) to Vienna, Lugdunum, and Augusta Remorum (Rheims). The distance from Rome to the Rhone was not much short of 800 Roman miles, and was said to have been traversed by Julius Cesar in eight days. The distance to Rheims is given as 1170 miles in the Antonine Itinerary, by a very circuitous route.
(0) The Aurelian Way led along the coast of Italy, Liguria, and Gaul to Massilia (Marseilles) and Arelate. ; é
(c) The Cassian or the Clodian Way led_to Florence, and thence it joined the Aurelian Way
* Anton. Itiner. p. 126.
392 ROADS AND TRAVEL (IN NT)
or else went across the Apennines to join the Aimilian Way at Bononia. This route had only local importance, and was then merged in the preceding.
4. Spain, which St. Paul hoped to visit from Rome (Ro 15™), might be reached either by sea to Tarraco, or by the roads to South Gaul, which were continued across the Rhone through Narbo and over the eastern end of the Pyrenees to Tar- raco, and thence by the Via Claudia Augusta to Valentia, Cordova, and Cadiz. News of the battle of Munda (not far from Cordova) is said to have been brought to Rome in thirty-five days, which is at the rate of about 50 miles a day; while Julius Czesar reached Rome from Obulco (35 miles from Cordova) within twenty-seven days. The distance from Cordova to Rome was about 1700 miles.
5. The route to Britain went on from Lugdunum by the valley of the Saone (Arar), by Soissons and Rheims to Amiens and Boulogne, where the chan- nel was crossed to Rutupic (Richborough). The distance from Rome to Bononia was about 1250 miles by the shortest route through Helvetia. Letters from Britain reached Cicero in twenty- three, or twenty-seven, or twenty-nine days: * there can be little doubt that all were carried by special military couriers, who came bearing Czesar’s despatches.
6. Africa was reached either by sea from Ostia or Portus, or by land and sea combined. The direct voyage in very favourable circumstances was made in three days; but this can only have been a rare and exceptional passage. Pliny’s statement, that Africa could be reached on the second day, must be set aside as very doubtful. The land route followed the Appian Way to Capua, and thence the Popilian Way, keeping near the coast, to Rhegium, about 450 miles from Rome ; thereafter it traversed Sicily from Messana to Lilybseum, and crossed the narrow seas to Africa. The total land journey was about 650 miles. A letter from Africa reached Rome in one case in twenty-two days: + doubtless it travelled either by the land route or by a coasting voyage.
IL. THE GENERAL EQUIPMENT OF THE ROMAN ROAD SYSTEM.—i. MAINTENANCE, REPAIRS, AND SAFETY. — While the maintenance of the great roads in Italy was entrusted to special officials of pretorian or even of consular rank,+ the care of the roads in the provinces was part of the duty of the provincial governors. At important points, and especially at knots in the road system, permanent military guards in special guard-houses were stationed. These stationes were charged not merely with the care of the roads, but still more with the keeping of them safe from robbers or brigands, and in general with the safety of the public in the region around. In the more Important stationes, at least, the commander was a centurion. regionarius. A soldier in such a statio was called stationarius.§ On the gsub- ject, see O. Hirschfeld in Berl. Sitzwngsber. 1891, p. 864f.; Mommsen, Strafrecht, p. 307 f£., esp. p. 312; Domaszewski, Rim. Mittheil. Instit. 1902, p. 330 ff.
Thus the charge of the roads was closely con- nected with the maintenance of peace and order in the districts served by the roads; and there grew up in the later time a tendency to name some districts of Italy according to the great road which connected them with Rome.
* Cicero, ad Q. frat. iii. 1.13; 17. 25; ad Att. iv. 17. 3.
t Cicero, ad Fam. xii. 25, 1.
{ Curators of the greatest roads, sometimes consulares.
§ The name statio was used widely in military service + but, stationarius was practically restricted to stationes for police
duty and public safety, and the use of the word belongs to a later period than the NT.