Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1891-05-29
ANCIENT ROMAN ROADS.
Jsao. GiImer Speed Draws Lesson from
Their Construction.

1t is claimed that the Incas of Peru
were the greatest road makers the world
has ever known. Montaigne tells of a
road from Quito Cuzco, 800 leagues
long and twenty-five PAGES broad, made
OF stones ten feet square, with a running
stream and a row of trees on each side,
and there is SO little reason to doubt this
statement that it can be accepted as
literally true. Prescott, in his History
OF Peru in speaking of this road
says that sit was conducted over
painless sierras severed with snow;
galleries were cut through the living
rock; rivers were crossed by means of
bridges that swung suspended in the air;
precipices were scaled by stairways
hewn out of the native bed, and ravines
OF hideous depth were filled up with
solid masonry" The Incas of Peru are
doubtless entitled to the palm for road
making, but nevertheless in the popular
mind the ancient Romans will probably
always be regarded as pre-eminent in
building permanent means Of commune
cation from one part of the empire to
another. The history Of ancient Peru
strikes the average mind as about as real
as the tales Of the 'sArabian Nights"
but there is a verify about Roman his
tory, due to the fact that in all schools
it has been conned over and over, until
even the man of the dullest imagination
has lived in the great deeds Of the found
ers, idled with the sybarites of its too
ripe days and suffered with those who
vainly attempted to check it's decadence
and prevent the overthrow Of it's glory.
Therefore l think that in this era of
road improvement agitation there will
be more interest to learn how the
Romans worked than that of any other
people. It is said that they learned
their method from the Carthagenians, but
wherever they learned it they carried it
out with no regard whatever to the cost
entailed. In Italy only the old Romans
built $4,000 miles of road, and many
of their roads remain today either as
the surface or the foundation of modern
roads. The antiquaries have divided the
roads leading from the gates of ancient
Rome into several systems. Directly to
the sea the Romans Travelled by the Os-
tan road; along the sea shore to the
northwest by the Aurelian, and to the
southeast by the Appian. Next the All
relian in the other direction was the
Flaminian, then the Salarian, the No
mentarian, the Tiburtine, the Praenes-
tine, the Lavican and the Latin. Of
these roads the Appian is the most an
Gent and the most famous. Its first
stretch, from the Colosseum to Capua,
was built by Appius Claudius in the
442d year of the city. This was dis
lance Of 142 Roman miles. Julius Caesar
extended this highway from Capua to
Brundusium. We are indebted to Hor-
ace for very minute description of
journey to Brundusium. Sir William
Cell, too, in this century, in a book called
"The Topography of Rome and Its Vicin-
ity," has traced out the road as it origi-
nally was, and located many Of the mon
uments and sites of ancient villas along.
either side of this noble highway.
In laying out highway the old Ro-
man engineers seemed to practice plan
which would seem very strange to us.
Whether OF not they made a prelimi-
nary survey for the purpose of observing
the typographical features Of the coun-
try the records do not speak, but it is
manifest to my mind that they did not.
They knew whittier they wished to go.
Standing at the starting point, some land
mark in the proper direction would be
selected, and the road located on an abso-
lutely straight line to that point. Then
a trench was dug the entire length until
some kind of solid foundation was found.
When foundation of solid rock was
found the lowest course of masonry was
omitted. This masonry consisted of
three courses, each about IL inches thick.
The lowest course was of large flat
stones, put in with reference to bearing,
the interstices filed with spawls and the
whole grouted with cement, The second
course was of concrete-that is, small
stones mixed with cement mortar, and
the surface Of this was smoothed very
carefully. On top of this the third
course was laid, and this consisted of
polygonal blocks fitted with the utmost
nicely. These roadways were from 1G
to 26 feet wide from curb to curb, and
beyond the curling on each side Of the
road was q foot pavement feet wide.
The stone Of which these roads We're
built was usually Of volcanic origin and
very hard and black in color. Notwith
standing the substantial character of
these roads, the utmost weight which
each class of vehicle was permitted to
carry was regulated by law, and these
laws were strictly enforced, The conse-
quence Of this careful building is that,
though there were periods centuries ago
when Italy was sunk into almost univer-
sal barbarisln, and that 1t is now taxed
almost to death to maintain a navy and
army, the roads compare favorably with
the best in Europe. This is not the case
where one wanders off from the main
which are still maintained by
the government In Italy as in America,
where the maintenance of the country
roads is left to local care, the roads are
bad. Those in Italy are practically i'm
passable.
But in this country we don't need to
build such roads as the Romans built.
In the first place we can exercise more
than they did, and lay out our
roads with some reference to heavy work
and to easy grades. And then in the
second place we have no need for such
solid masonry as they saw fit to use.
Telford and MacAdam have taught us
how we can build roads as solidly as
roads need to be built if we will only
attend to one cardinal principle in build
ing and to another in maintenance. We
cannot build solid roadbed unless we
have perfect drainage. No foundation,
however carefully laid, will resist the
loads Oh the pavements unless the earth
beneath is dry and the metal covering
to water. The Romans may
not have drained perfectly at all times,
but am persuaded that they understood
it in theory. Our telford and macadam
pavements will answer cur purposes
quite as we'll as any roads the Caesars
ever planned, OF, for that matter, be for
practical use as substantial as the ten
feet square blocks Of the Incas of Peru.
JNo. GILMER SPEED.
Derivation of Two Flowers Names.
A tuberose is not rose, although the
majority Of English speaking people say it
is, because they give the word only two