Roman Roads: 400,000 Kilometers of Control

Rome held its empire together with stone. About 400,000 kilometers of roads, many still usable today, moved legions, mail, and trade across three continents, while concrete formulations built harbors and domes that have lasted 2,000 years. Emperors called the Mediterranean Mare Nostrum, and two centuries of Pax Romana let cities flourish from Britain to Syria.

When the West fell in 476, the East carried on as Byzantium until 1453. Explore the empire profiles and see how infrastructure, not just armies, held the ancient world together..