[HN Gopher] The Beautiful Network of Ancient Roman Roads (2015)
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       The Beautiful Network of Ancient Roman Roads (2015)
        
       Author : wglb
       Score  : 47 points
       Date   : 2022-06-15 17:39 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.atlasobscura.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.atlasobscura.com)
        
       | Lio wrote:
       | > _spanned from Hadrian's Wall in Scotland_
       | 
       | Straight off the bat that's wrong.
       | 
       | Hadrian's Wall is in England not Scotland.
       | 
       | I guess they could be thinking of Antonine's Wall but that's a
       | different story.
        
         | ghaff wrote:
         | In general, I agree. Although in the context of the actual
         | quote, there was so much back and forth trading of land in
         | northern England over the centuries that to say Hadrian's Wall
         | was in at least partly in Scotland at one point isn't
         | necessarily wrong.
        
       | superb-owl wrote:
       | I recently came across a piece of a Roman road while hiking the
       | Pyrenees. Astounding to see something that old, and to realize
       | just how far the Roman empire extended.
        
         | Lio wrote:
         | I was riding Peddar's Way[1] in England last year.
         | 
         | It was an old Roman road but I was told by someone on the trail
         | it actually dates back to pre-Roman Britain.
         | 
         | That blew my mind. To walk or ride roads so old and yet so
         | unchanged.
         | 
         | 1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peddars_Way
        
       | nonrandomstring wrote:
       | We have many in the South of England. As a kid I walked and biked
       | them. Most are dirt trails now, grown over. But if you look on
       | maps it's clear they are the shortest, straight path between
       | major towns. Modern roads twist and turn around them.
       | 
       | I am showing my embarrassing ignorance of history here, but I
       | don't know why that happened. Maybe something to do with land
       | rights, and the "enclosures"? Anyway something important was lost
       | in the communication systems of England between the Roman era and
       | today.
        
         | kwhitefoot wrote:
         | See The Rolling English Road By G. K. Chesterton
         | 
         | https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48212/the-rolling-eng...
         | 
         | :-)
        
           | nonrandomstring wrote:
           | "The night we went to Birmingham by way of Beachy Head."
           | 
           | Thanks for that delight.
           | 
           | So we shall blame alcohol? "The cause of and solution to so
           | many of lifes problems." :)
        
       | jjtheblunt wrote:
       | > Via Appia was also the site where, in 71 BCE, around 6000
       | members of Spartacus's slave army were crucified on the
       | hillsides.
       | 
       | Ignorant question: did Romans kill people on crosses before the
       | Christian era?
        
         | overkalix wrote:
         | The cross became a symbol of Christianity because Jesus was
         | crucified, not the other way around.
         | 
         | Moreover, crucifixion is just a pragmatic approach to
         | traditional public executions. Many societies have used trees
         | and walls to hang, kill and display the executed their necks
         | broken, beaten to death, lashed, lynched, asfixiated, left to
         | die of thirst or exposure... the method doesn't really matter,
         | the point is they are there for everyone to see.
        
         | dudul wrote:
         | Yes
        
       | hourago wrote:
       | > Along these roads ran messengers, as a type of precursor to the
       | American Pony Express a relay of horsemen could carry a message
       | 50 miles a day.
       | 
       | Is there any real connection between both?
       | 
       | It sounds strange. Relay horses seems just an obvious solution to
       | tired horses when you give more priority to speed than cost.
        
         | bombcar wrote:
         | I think they're just pointing out that they use relay horses. I
         | wonder how many times in history that's been both possible and
         | needed - the expense is relatively high compared to sending a
         | single rider.
        
           | jmclnx wrote:
           | If I remember correctly, from what I read, relay horses
           | allowed the message to arrive faster. Horses get tired too,
           | so after a certain distance the rider would get a fresh
           | horse.
        
             | ciupicri wrote:
             | By the way see the Man versus Horse Marathon [1] which
             | proves that horses aren't that fast on long distances, in
             | this particular case 22 miles (35 km).
             | 
             | [1]:
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_versus_Horse_Marathon
        
           | ghaff wrote:
           | For all its role in Americana, the Pony Express lasted
           | something like 18 months having come in just prior to the
           | telegraph.
        
       | polycaster wrote:
       | Somewhat related to the topic: ORBIS - The Stanford Geospatial
       | Network Model of the Roman World https://orbis.stanford.edu/
        
       | [deleted]
        
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       (page generated 2022-06-16 23:00 UTC)