Editing Roman roads (section)

==Laws and traditions==
[[File:Viae romanae.webm|thumb|Roman roads animation in Latin with English subtitles]] The [[Twelve Tables|Laws of the Twelve Tables]], dated to about 450 BC, required that any public road (Latin ''via'') be 8&nbsp;Roman feet (perhaps about 2.37 m) wide where straight and twice that width where curved. These were probably the minimum widths for a ''via''; in the later republic, widths of around 12 Roman feet were common for public roads in rural regions, permitting the passing of two carts of standard (4 foot) width without interference to pedestrian traffic.<ref>{{cite book|last=Laurence|first=Ray|title=The roads of Roman Italy: mobility and cultural change|url=https://archive.org/details/roadsromanitalym00laur|url-access=limited|year=1999|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-16616-4|pages=[https://archive.org/details/roadsromanitalym00laur/page/n72 58]–59}}</ref> [[#Practices and terminology|Actual practices]] varied from this standard. The Tables command Romans to build public roads and give wayfarers the right to pass over private land where the road is in disrepair. Building roads that would not need frequent repair therefore became an ideological objective, as well as building them as straight as practicable to construct the shortest possible roads, and thus save on material.

Roman law defined the right to use a road as a ''servitus'', or liability. The ''ius eundi'' ("right of going") established a claim to use an ''iter'', or footpath, across private land; the ''ius agendi'' ("right of driving"), an ''actus'', or carriage track. A ''via'' combined both types of ''servitutes'', provided it was of the proper width, which was determined by an ''arbiter''. The default width was the ''latitudo legitima'' of 8&nbsp;feet. Roman law and tradition forbade the use of vehicles in urban areas, except in certain cases. Married women and government officials on business could ride. The ''[[Lex Julia#Lex Julia municipalis (45 BC)|Lex Julia Municipalis]]'' restricted commercial carts to night-time access in the city within the walls and within a mile outside the walls.