Editing Roman roads (section)

==Roman systems==
{{quote box
| width = 260px
| align = right
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| quote = "The extraordinary greatness of the Roman Empire manifests itself above all in three things: the aqueducts, the paved roads, and the construction of the drains."
| source = [[Dionysius of Halicarnassus]], ''Ant. Rom. 3.67.5''<ref>Quilici, Lorenzo (2008): "Land Transport, Part 1: Roads and Bridges", in: [[John Peter Oleson|Oleson, John Peter]] (ed.): ''The Oxford Handbook of Engineering and Technology in the Classical World'', Oxford University Press, New York, {{ISBN|978-0-19-518731-1}}, pp.&nbsp;551–579 (552)</ref>
}}

[[Livy]] mentions some of the most familiar roads near Rome, and the milestones on them, at times long before the first paved road—the [[Appian Way]].<ref name="SmithDictionaryAntiquities"/> Unless these allusions are just simple anachronisms, the roads referred to were probably at the time little more than levelled earthen tracks.<ref name="SmithDictionaryAntiquities"/> Thus, the [[Via Praenestina|Via Gabiana]] (during the time of [[Porsena]]) is mentioned in about 500 BC; the [[Via Latina]] (during the time of [[Gaius Marcius Coriolanus]]) in about 490 BC; the [[Via Nomentana]] (also known as "Via Ficulensis"), in 449 BC; the [[Via Labicana]] in 421 BC; and the [[Via Salaria]] in 361 BC.<ref name="SmithDictionaryAntiquities">Smith (1890).</ref>

In the [[Itinerary of Antoninus]], the description of the road system is as follows:
<blockquote>
With the exception of some outlying portions, such as Britain north of the Wall, [[Dacia]], and certain provinces east of the Euphrates, the whole Empire was penetrated by these ''itinera'' (plural of ''iter''). There is hardly a district to which we might expect a Roman official to be sent, on service either civil or military, where we do not find roads. They reach the [[Hadrian's Wall|Wall in Britain]]; run along the [[Rhine]], the [[Danube]], and the [[Euphrates]]; and cover, as with a network, the interior provinces of the Empire.<ref name="SmithDictionaryAntiquities"/></blockquote>
A road map of the empire reveals that it was generally laced with a dense network of prepared ''viae''.<ref name="SmithDictionaryAntiquities"/> Beyond its borders there were no paved roads; however, it can be supposed that footpaths and dirt roads allowed some transport.<ref name="SmithDictionaryAntiquities"/> There were, for instance, some pre-Roman [[ancient trackway]]s in Britain, such as [[the Ridgeway]] and the [[Icknield Way]].<ref>Timothy Darvill, ''Oxford Archaeological Guides: England'' (2002) pp. 297–298</ref>