The most beautiful reference to ' rivers ' in the whole Bible is yet to be discussed. It is found in Rev 22'- ^, ' And he shewed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the midst of the street thereof. And on this side of the river and on that was the tree of life, bearing twelve manner of fruits, yielding its fruit every month ; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.' To the Seer of Patmos, the New Jerusalem would not be complete without the river of water of life. The original Paradise (Gn 2'°) possessed a river, and Paradise Regained must possess one too. Rivers, in the East especi- ally, have the power to turn a wilderness into a garden of beautj' and fertility; hence the river is here an apt symbol of life. Its waters are ' living waters' (Jer 2") and healing (Ezk 47'-'°), making 'glad the city of God' (Ps 46''). In Ezekiel the life-giving stream issued from the Temple ; now, inasmuch as the city is all temple, the river's ultimate .source is from the presence of the king. The river .and the street run side by side through the city, as the Bar.ada and the street upon its left bank do to-day in the city of Damascus. Trees of life are placed in rows on either side of the intervening space. Both river and trees are within reach of every one. The river is no longer a mere boundary (Nu 34°) or a highway for navigation (Is 18'-), nor are its banks even a place of prayer (Ac 16'') ; it is rather a source of spiritual irrigation to immortals. Thus John uses the realistic though archaic Language of Jewish piety to delineate the bliss of the Redeemed in a future state. In his picture the river becomes the symbol of the spiritu,al happiness of the followers of the Lamb ; thus heaven is to possess all that Judaism had ever claimed or craved.
George L. Robin.son. ROADS AND TRAVEL. — The beginnings of travel as of so many other human institutions are hidden in obscurity. No doubt the search lor food or better accommodation was a primary motive in early times. Soon would supervene that love of gain which was eventuallj' to send the merchant princes of Rome on long sea-journeys to the bounds of the Empire and beyond.
So Horace, Carm. i. xxxi. 11 ff. : 'Mercator . . . Iiis earns ipsis ; quippe ter et quater Anno reuisens ffiquor Atlanticum Itnpune.'
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KOADS AND TRAVEL
KUADS AND TRAVEL
A later motive still would be curiosity, the desire to obtain knowledge. We learn, for instance, that Gernianicus, the adopted son of the Emperor Tiberius, turned aside from his olHcial journey to visit Ei;ypt cognosee.ndm antiquitntis (Tac. Ann. ii. 59, etc. ). Indeed, Egypt was as much a show place in ancient times as it is now. Pliny the S'oun<;er tells us that in his day (about A.D. 100) people would taUe the longest journeys to see wonderful sights, while blind to the equally wonderful at their own doors. Journeys were also undertaken in those days for purposes of health. The inhabitants of low- lying coast towns resorted to the villages on the uplands in the hot season. There are multitu<le3 of references in the Latin authors to the holiday-resorts near Rome, such as Prjeneste, Tibur, Tusculuni, to which in the height of summer the jaded Roman resorted. Many journeys were made in pursuit of military or other official dut}'. There were, however, nearer analo- gies to the tours of apostles tlian those mentioned : for long, teachers of philosophy and rhetoric liad been wanderers from place to place, and the ancients were also familiar with the wandering priests of various religious cults. Between these two classes stand the apostles like Paul.
1. Conveyances. — In ancient times we hear very little of walking, except for short distances. Dispatch runners, however, are sometimes men- tioned as covering distances in an incredibly short space of time. Nor do we hear much of riding, except in the cavalry divisions of the army and in the formal reviews of the equestrian order, etc. Driving was the favourite method of locomotion on land. It was not permitted within the city of Rome itself. The streets were narrow, and any one who wished to be carried in the city had to be conveyed in a sedan-chair (lei-tica). On reaching a gate of the city the traveller entered the carriage which would be found waiting. It is a curious fact about Roman conveyances that nearly all the Latin words for them are borrowed from the Celtic language of the Gauls. It would .seem, therefore, that most types of conveyance were obtained by the Romans from the Gauls. The favourite was the two-horsed carriage. Such it was, doubtless, that St. Paul took when wearied by his final long journey towards Jerusalem (^7ri<r/ceuacra|Uei'oi, Ac 21", means, 'having equipped [saddled] horses'; cf. Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller, p. 302). From the mention of this detail here and here only, it may be inferred that his usual method was the healthiest, safest, and surest, namely, walking.
2. Roads. — (1) Construction. — The Roman sys- tem of Toads has never been surpassed. Some ac- count, therefore, of the method of their construction is of interest. Perhaps the most detailed descrip- tion that has survived is that of Statius, in his Silu(e (iv. 3), describing the Via Domitiana, a road which the Emperor Domitian caused to be made between Sinuessa and Puteoli on the west coast of Italy. The problem there was of some difficulty, as the engineers had to deal with rivers, marshes, hills, and forests. The poet describes how on the old track the traveller was jolted, how the wheels stuck in the ground while the pole was high in air, how the populace had all the terrors of a sea-voyage on land, added to the discomfort of the painfully slow progress. The journey that once took a whole day now takes ' scarcely two hours' ! First the track was marked out, then balks were cut through, and the earth was re- moved to a considerable depth all the way along. The bed thus obtained was then filled up witli fresh material. This consisted of layers of sand and stones of various sizes. The stones were kept in position partly by means of dowels connecting one with another, partly by the use of wedge-