Roman Britain/Roads and Streets

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Pompeii Via dell' Abbondanza 01.jpg

The Romans were famous for their roads, and this page describes how Roman roads were built and used.[1] The Romans built roads so that the army could march from one place to another. They tried to build the roads as straight as possible so that the army could take the shortest route.

Task
  1. Watch the movie.
  2. Do the interactive exercise.




Via Munita schema.svg

The general appearance of such a road and footway is shown in an existing street of Pompeii.[2]

Sort the different layers into the correct position:

7. edge-stones
6. Crepido:
5. Dorsum or agger viae:
4. Nucleus:
3. Audits:
2. Statumen:
1.

cement mixed with broken potshards and lime.raised footway, or sidewalk, on each side of the viaa layer of big stonesPaving stones formed the surface of the road. These were cut so they fit together tightlyBroken stones, pebbles, cement and sand to make a firm baseNative earth, leveled and, if necessary, rammed tight.

The upper surface was designed to cast off rain or water like the shell of a tortoise. The lower surfaces of the separate stones, here shown as flat, were sometimes cut to a point or edge in order to grasp the nucleus, or next layer, more firmly.


Roman Britain

  1. Life of a Legionary
  2. Hadrian's Wall
  3. Roads and Streets
  4. Everyday Life

Weblinks

  1. Roman Roads in Britain (simple.wikipedia.org)
  2. Roman Roads Teaching Ideas (www.teachingideas.co.uk)