The Via Traiana

Abstract

Long before the Romans had established the foundations of their power in Southern Italy, there must necessarily have existed numerous natural routes of communication between the principal centres of population, which were later utilised by the conquerors as they developed and civilised what they had won with their swords. As the Romans advanced from point to point, planting in the best strategical positions military colonies, which not only secured freshly conquered territory, but also served as bases from which advances against tribes, still unsubjugated, could be directed, it was essential that each new outpost, particularly if it had been established in an area in which there still remained an openly menacing foe, should be connected with a base of strength and security by an easy means of communication.