Today, roads are so commonplace that they often seem like a mundane part of everyday life. We use them to travel quickly from place to place, facilitate the import and export of goods and services, and perform other routine tasks. In ancient times, especially during the Roman Empire, roads served far more significant purposes. The Romans, not the first to build roads, were the first to create an extensive and remarkably durable network that covered their entire empire. This network, estimated at around 192,861 kilometers, with some estimates reaching over 400,000 kilometers, was a marvel of engineering (DeBenedictis, Licio, and Pinna 2023). It supported military efficiency, administrative control, economic and political integration, and the dissemination of Roman culture, laws, and languages. But perhaps its most unique and significant feature was its role in promoting cultural exchange, allowing the movement of people, ideas, traditions, and customs throughout the empire, including the spread of Christianity. In the modern era, with our easy access to the internet, books, magazines, television, and radio, it’s easy to overlook just how vital these roads were in spreading ideas and beliefs across the Roman world.
The Roman road network reached its height during the height of the Roman Empire, around the 1st and 2nd centuries CE. During this period, Christianity emerged and began to spread. Originating in the 1st century CE in Judea, a Roman province in what is now modern-day Israel, Christianity grew rapidly. Estimates of the Christian population in the Roman Empire by 200 CE range from 150,000 to 300,000, though some scholars, including the distinguished American historian Ramsay MacMullen, who was Emeritus Professor of History at Yale University, suggest a higher figure of just under 500,000 (MacMullen 1984). By 380 CE, Christianity was established as the official state religion of Rome following the Edict of Thessalonica issued by Emperor Theodosius I. The remarkable success of this relatively new religion, originating from an obscure part of the empire, was greatly facilitated by the Roman road network, which enabled the widespread movement of people and ideas, especially across the western regions.
The most prominent figure in early Christianity was the Apostle Paul. The Book of Acts in the Christian New Testament provides detailed accounts of his travels throughout the Roman Empire and his use of the Roman road network to disseminate the Christian message to many significant cities. Although not explicitly named, it is evident that Paul and his companions traveled on roads such as the Via Egnatia (Acts 16:12; 17:1 [NRSV]), which linked the eastern and western parts of the empire over approximately 1,120 km, the Via Augusta (Acts 18:1-2 [NRSV]), which extended from the Pyrenees to the Mediterranean coast, covering Hispania (modern Spain) through Gaul (modern France) to the Italian border, and the Via Appia (Acts 28:15 [NRSV]), a crucial route connecting the capital with southeastern Italy. Regardless of historical accuracy, the Book of Acts illustrates that people were aware of and utilized the Roman road network to travel across the empire for the purpose of sharing beliefs and new ideas. I am confident that Paul was not the only one involved in this endeavor.
In conclusion, while the Roman road network was undoubtedly a remarkable feat of engineering and one of the greatest from antiquity, its most profound impact was likely its role in facilitating the spread of beliefs and ideas across the empire. Among these, Christianity stands out as the most significant. Followers like the Apostle Paul deliberately used this road system to disseminate the Christian message, which, in just over 300 years, became the official state religion of Rome. A religion that started in a remote part of the empire following the politically motivated death of its founder at the hands of Roman authorities eventually came to dominate the very empire that had initially sought to suppress it, largely thanks to the road system developed to serve the empire’s political ambitions. It’s no surprise that today, the internet is often referred to as the “information highway” because it rapidly disseminates information over vast distances. This term may well be an allusion to the crucial role that Roman roads played 2,000 years ago in facilitating the spread of information across the empire.
Bibliography:
DeBenedictis, L, Vania Licio, and Am Pinna. 2023. “From the Historical Roman Road Network to Modern Infrastructure in Italy.” Journal of Regional Science, July (July). https://doi.org/10.1111/jors.12659.
Macmullen, Ramsay. 1984. Christianizing the Roman Empire (A.D. 100-400). New Haven Conn. ; London: Yale.
Michael David Coogan, Marc Zvi Brettler, Carol A Newsom, and Pheme Perkins. 2018. The New Oxford Annotated Bible : New Revised Standard Version with the Apocrypha. 5th ed. New York, New York: Oxford University Press.
