A recent study has revealed that the famous saying "all roads lead to Rome" doesn't accurately reflect the shape of the Roman Empire's overland transport network, as the ancient capital was not the most central location for travel across the road system, while the site of Byzantium, which later became Constantinople, held a more important position in connecting the empire's far-flung reaches.
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Researchers relied on a detailed digital model comprising around 299,000 kilometers of Roman roads stretching across Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, to analyze the locations of cities, overland travel routes, and the importance of the roads connecting them.
The study's findings were published on September 15, 2026, in the journal Nature Communications, after analyzing a network comprising 10,516 intersection and road-end points, linked through 14,901 routes.
Rome Is Not at the Heart of the Network
The findings showed that Rome held an important position on the roads of Italy's western coast but was not at the center of the overland road network across the empire as a whole.
Tom Brughmans, a classical archaeologist at Denmark's Aarhus University, told Reuters: "Did all roads lead to Rome? Not quite," explaining that the city was central to navigation in the Mediterranean Sea, but did not hold the same position within the overland road network.
Emperor Augustus had, in 20 BC, erected a gilded monument in the Roman Forum, known as the "Golden Milestone," which symbolically represented the starting point of the empire's roads. But the new study indicates that Rome's symbolic and political value did not necessarily make it the most important node for overland travel.
The analysis revealed that the most central route within the Italian peninsula ran along the Adriatic coast on the opposite side of the country, bypassing Rome.
Researchers found that the location of Byzantium, which became Constantinople in the 4th century AD, was better suited to connecting the road networks of Europe and Asia.
Brughmans said the city was exceptionally central for overland travel across the empire, and far more central than Rome, benefiting from its position on the Bosphorus Strait and the presence of ferries that connected the European and Asian shores.
However, this finding does not mean that all journeys passed through Constantinople but rather indicates that it emerged in the calculations as a more important node within the shortest overland travel routes between regions of the empire.
The study also showed that provincial capitals, including Ankara, London, and Corinth, held central positions within their regional networks, which helped with administration, tax collection, and the movement of soldiers and goods.
The study also found a correlation between the density of Roman roads and modern major highways, reflecting the continued influence of the ancient infrastructure on transportation patterns.
Roman roads were not always straight, as the common image suggests; they took direct routes across flat terrain but curved to avoid rugged landscapes and elevated areas.
Thus, the study doesn't dismiss the figurative meaning of the famous saying but corrects its geographic picture: Rome was the political and symbolic heart of the empire, while the overland road network did not entirely revolve around it.
Resource: Al Ghad.
