All roads in ancient Rome stretched far longer than previously known, study shows

As the saying goes, all roads once led to Rome – and those roads stretched 50% longer than previously thought, according to a new digital atlas released Thursday.

The last major atlas of ancient Roman road networks was published 25 years ago. Since then, advances in technology and other newly accessible sources have greatly increased researchers’ ability to locate ancient routes.

For five years, a team of archaeologists combed through historical documents, old newspapers, milestone locations and other archival data. Scientists then looked for clues in satellite imagery and aerial photography, including recently digitized photos taken from planes during World War II.

When ancient stories hinted at lost roads in a certain area, researchers analyzed the terrain from above to spot subtle traces—features such as slight differences in vegetation, variations in soil, or changes in elevation, as well as traces of ancient engineering like raised mounds or jagged hillsides—that revealed where Roman roads once passed.

“It becomes a massive game of connecting the dots on a continental scale,” said Tom Brughmans, an archaeologist and co-author of the study published in Scientific data.

The data and an interactive digital map are also available online for scholars, history teachers, or anyone interested in ancient Roman history.

Previous research had focused on “the highways of the Roman Empire,” the major arteries most often mentioned in familiar historical accounts, Brughmans said.

The updated map provides more obscure details about “secondary roads, like country roads, that connected villas and farms” and other locations, said Brughmans, based at Aarhus University in Denmark.

Researchers had previously estimated the extent of Roman roads at around 117,163 miles (188,555 kilometers). The new work shows almost 300,000 kilometers of roads across the expanse of the Roman Empire, allowing travel from Spain to Syria.

The study greatly enriched archaeologists’ knowledge of the ancient routes of North Africa, the plains of France and the Peloponnese peninsula in Greece.

“This will be fundamental work for a lot of other research,” said archaeologist Benjamin Ducke of the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin, who was not involved in the project.

But one caveat, he added, is that it’s still unclear whether all the roads were ever open and active at the same time.

Being able to visualize the ancient routes taken by Roman farmers, soldiers, diplomats and other travelers will provide a better understanding of key historical trends that depended on the movement of people in Roman times, Brughmans said, including the rise of Christianity in the region and the spread of ancient epidemics.

“The Romans left a huge impact with this road network,” which created the template for many roads still used today, said study co-author and archaeologist Adam Pažout of the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

Roman engineering prowess in building and maintaining roads – including arched stone bridges and hillside tunnels – still shapes the geography and economy of the Mediterranean region and beyond, he said.

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