Roman roads and travel

Latin I, first semester

Louise G. Wesson

North Penn High School and Penndale Middle School, Lansdale PA

wessonlg@npenn.org   

A note: within days of leaving Governor's school, I flew to England for a 3-week family visit. Since I was there, and based in Oxford, I was able to spend many days investigating both the sites and museums of Roman Britain in Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and Hampshire. Best of all, and with the help of Sister Mary Helen Kashuba, I was admitted to the Bodleian Library of the University of Oxford, and spent there four days in research for this project.

Although I intend, with my students, to focus on Roman roads on the Italian peninsula, I became aware of how much those Roman roads affected a provincial backwater like Britannia. Even now, almost 2000 years after the roads were built in England, the English still refer to them, albeit with Saxon names: Akeman Street leads from Cirencester to St. Albans [Corinium to Verulamium]; Watling Street, Dover to London to Wroxeter; Ermine Street from Gloucester to Silchester (and a larger of the same name from London to Lincoln and York. And one never changed its name: Fosse Way (from "fossa"), going from Lincoln to Exeter.  Many of the modern roads follow fairly closely the path of a Roman road, and get one to the coast, and from there a ship to Rome.  Omnes viae Romam ducunt: even from England.