Omnes Viae Romam Ducunt: All roads lead to Rome

  1. Home
  2. Omnes Viae Romam Ducunt: All roads lead to Rome
  3. Interpretive Phase
  4. Interpersonal Phase
  5. Presentational Phase
  6. Bibliography on Roman roads and travel
Home > Omnes Viae Romam Ducunt: All roads lead to Rome

Omnes Viae Romam Ducunt: All roads lead to Rome

Roman roads and travel

Topic: Roman roads and travel

Language: Latin

Level: Latin 1, first semester

Roman roads—their location, numbers and quality, are one of the features setting the Roman apart from other ancient civilizations.

The essential question is this: Why were roads so important to the Romans?  What did their engineering efforts gain them?  We will look at the roads built by the Romans, why and where, by whom and when they were built; how long they lasted, who traveled on them, what were the amenities available to different classes of travelers, and where those roads can be found today. Considering the length of the roads and dealing with money will allow us to make some practical use of the Roman numeral system, and to consider how much more flexible is our system, thanks to  the concept of zero. I will be using authentic texts from milestones and tombs to introduce or develop grammar understanding.

Length of time for unit: 1 semester. Our text, Latin for Americans, makes “Roman Roads and travel” the focus of the first unit, and "Rome, the Eternal City" the focus of the second. Because I have written this project to work with the text, I expect to keep the same general topic for most of the first semester. Thanks to Diocletian's Currency Edict of 301 and some reproduction Roman coins, I will be able to introduce the idea of what things cost -- at one point -- in the Roman empire.

Why did the the Romans say, “Aut viam inveniam aut faciam” (I'll either find a way or make one")? Why “Omnes viae Romam ducunt”?

At the conclusion of this task, students will be able to:

read and comprehend an authentic text on the subject of roads

name several types of roads used by the Romans

identify at least 5 of the most famous Roman roads

explain

        -why people say “all roads lead to Rome”

        -what the roads did for Rome and the Romans

       -how people traveled in the Roman empire

       -how the Roman road-building techniques related to their view of themselves

compare the importance and use of roads in Roman and modern American society

present in English a planned trip from a given starting point to Rome

write and present in Latin a short “travelogue” based on an imaginary trip along a particular Roman road.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roman roads: Standards addressed

USA- Standards for Classical Language
Goal: Communication: Communicate in a Classical Language
Standard: Standard 1.1- Students read, understand, and interpret Latin or Greek.
Level: Beginning
Sample Progress Indicator: Students read words, phrases, and simple sentences and associate them with pictures, and/or other words, phrases and simple sentences.
Sample Progress Indicator: Students demonstrate reading comprehension by answering simple questions in Latin, Greek, or English about short passages of Latin or Greek.
Sample Progress Indicator: Students demonstrate a knowledge of vocabulary, basic inflectional systems, and syntax appropriate to their reading level.
Standard: Standard 1.2- Students use orally, listen to, and write Latin or Greek as part of the language learning process.
Level: Beginning
Sample Progress Indicator: Students recognize and reproduce the sounds of Latin or Greek.
Sample Progress Indicator: Students respond appropriately to simple questions, statements, commands, or non-verbal stimuli.
Sample Progress Indicator: Students write simple phrases and sentences in Latin or Greek.
Goal: Culture: Gain Knowledge and Understanding of Greco-Roman Culture
Standard: Standard 2.1- Students demonstrate an understanding of the perspectives of Greek or Roman culture as revealed in the practices of the Greeks or Romans.
Level: Beginning
Sample Progress Indicator: Students demonstrate a basic knowledge of the daily life of the ancient Greeks or Romans.
Sample Progress Indicator: Students demonstrate knowledge of some famous Greeks or Romans and of selected facts of history and geography of the ancient world.
Standard: Standard 2.2- Students demonstrate an understanding of the perspectives of Greek or Roman culture as revealed in the products of the Greeks or Romans.
Level: Beginning
Sample Progress Indicator: Students recognize basic architectural features and art forms of the Greeks or Romans.
Goal: Connections- Connect with Other Disciplines and Expand Knowledge
Standard: Standard 3.1 Students reinforce and further their knowledge of other disciplines through their study of classical languages.
Level: Beginning
Sample Progress Indicator: Students recognize and use Roman numerals and the vocabulary associated with counting.
Standard: Standard 3.2- Students expand their knowledge through the reading of Latin or Greek and the study of ancient culture.
Level: Beginning
Sample Progress Indicator: Students acquire information about the Greco-Roman world by reading passages of Latin or Greek with a culturally authentic setting.
Sample Progress Indicator: Students demonstrate a knowledge of the geography of the ancient world and connect it to the modern world.
Goal: Comparisons- Develop Insight into Own Language and Culture
Standard: Standard 4.1 Students recognize and use elements of the Latin or Greek language to increase knowledge of their own language.
Level: Beginning
Sample Progress Indicator: Students demonstrate a basic knowledge of Latin and Greek roots, prefixes, and suffixes by recognizing them in English words of Latin or Greek origin.
Sample Progress Indicator: Students understand some Latin or Greek phrases, mottoes, and abbreviations used in English.
Standard: Standard 4.2 Students compare and contrast their own culture with that of the Greco-Roman world.
Level: Beginning
Sample Progress Indicator: Students look at the architectural features of the buildings around them and recognize the Greco-Roman elements in them.
Sample Progress Indicator: Students compare and contrast aspects of their own public and private lives to those of the Greeks or Romans.

Roman roads: Classroom preparation

Pre-reading activities

Map of roads in Italian peninsula (see Ecce Romani vol. I, p. 99)

Reproduction Roman coins (brass dupondii, silver denarii, gold aurei) available at very modest price (35 - 45 p) from Roman Corinium (Cirencester, Glos. UK), Roman Verulamium (St. Albans, Herts, UK), and Ashmolean Museum (Oxford, UK). Least expensive at Corinium. I purchased enough to make a "money bag" for travelers.

Various inscriptions from roadside mile-markers, cippi, tombs (found in Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum [CIL]), in the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford,  I collected a great many inscriptions, relating to roads and travelers, which are illustrative of grammar points taught in first semester Latin I. I am hoping to use these when I introduce new grammar, so that “authentic” text is found not only in the IPA, but in class at least weekly.

"Traveling the Road" game:

I have made a Roman road “floorcloth” ( a roll of brown paper, irregular paving stones of construction paper in various stone-y sorts of colors, laminated). Many extra “stones” of identical shapes, bearing questions on content, grammar, vocabulary can be laid over the paving stones. They are fastened by Velcro, so should be walkable-upon. This floorcloth will provide a topical opportunity for learning and review. I envision the game moving along by students throwing a small sandal onto a paver, answering the question found there (or more likely, throwing the sandal for someone else).

 

Students make their own tunics at beginning of each year, so to be appropriately dressed whenever doing a project. I arrange with the sewing teacher to use the FCS sewing lab after school; students sign up for a sewing party.

Use of computer lab

Authentic text for students: St. Isidore of Seville, LIb.XV, "de aedificiis et agris" 8-13 [passage on types of roads]  found in www.thelatinlibrary.com.  Since this is late Latin, it is rather simpler for students. Isidore's sentences, if stripped to the skeleton, are all of the x = y variety, a beginning Latin student's favorite format.

Copies of texts in translation:

Horace, Satire V (concerning a very long road trip in company of Maecenas and Vergil)

Statius, Silvae IV, #3 "Via Domitiana" (a poem in praise of the building of that road, the benefits it gave to travelers and letter-senders)

Vitruvius (de Architectura) Lib VIII, VI, l. 1-9

Useful websites on Roman roads

This is a handful of sites which I think useful, found through Nettrekker DI
Web Links:
  1. Ancient History: Romans Ancient History: Romans
    Discovering Roman Technology
  2. Appian Way Appian Way
  3. Britain Express: The Roman Invasion of Britain Britain Express: The Roman Invasion of Britain
    Roman Britain- the Roman Invasion
  4. How the Roads Were Built How the Roads Were Built
  5. Imperium Romanum: Rome and Its Seven Hills Imperium Romanum: Rome and Its Seven Hills
  6. Museum of Antiquities(Tyne and Wear) Museum of Antiquities(Tyne and Wear)
  7. Museum of London: Digging up the Romans Museum of London: Digging up the Romans
  8. Road Building and the Romans Road Building and the Romans
  9. Roman building technology and architecture Roman building technology and architecture
  10. Roman Roads Roman Roads
  11. Roman Roads: Roman engineering Roman Roads: Roman engineering
  12. Viae Construction Viae Construction
    How Romans built roads
Author: Louise Wesson
Last modified: 1/30/2008 2:25 AM (EST)