Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 53.djvu/271

Rh these layers, aggregating more than two feet in thickness, were placed bowlders of basalt or granite, from the size of a man's head to that of a half barrel. The sides were roughly trimmed to make the joints even; the tops were hammered to present a smooth surface to the foot of the traveler, and the whole was cemented together with such skill that after two thousand years of wear many of these roads may still be used. Near the cities more pains were taken; the granite blocks were hexagonal, carefully trimmed and evenly jointed. On the Appian Way the pieces were so neatly fitted together that even to-day it is difficult to detect a joint. The center of the road was the highest; on each side were gutters to carry off the water; if the road ran through a flat country, the gutter became a ditch; if through a country where the fidelity of the inhabitants was doubted, a breast-high wall on either side of the road made it an almost unassailable fortification. In country districts no house might stand within two hundred feet of any road, nor were any trees or bushes allowed to grow in the same limits, for the Roman highway must be safe, and robbers and evildoers must have no place of concealment in its immediate vicinity.

The country roads had at every half mile a block of stone placed by the wayside for the convenience of the traveler in remounting. On the Appian Way, for a distance of twenty miles from Rome, stone seats were placed for travelers at every forty feet; wherever a spring sprang from the earth near a road, a well was hollowed out and a cup provided at the well, and chained to a large stone, in order that travelers might quench their thirst and leave the cup for the next comer.

The roads were military in their character, the prime object being to facilitate the march of the legions. No country was considered conquered until roads had been constructed in every part, and an evidence of their value may be found in the fact that the first step taken by rebels in every local insurrection against the Roman power was to tear up the roads and destroy the bridges. These efforts were generally unsuccessful, for only gunpowder can prevail over such layers of stones and cement as constituted a Roman road, and the barbarians had no powder. In times of peace, the legionaries were employed in road building to keep the men out of mischief, but soldiers were not the only road workers. Criminals and slaves were set to work to make and mend the highways, and, where none of these were available, persons were hired to repair and construct the roads. Every governor of a Roman province had the strictest orders to see to the roads, and when a new line was projected through provincial territory it sometimes happened that the whole male population was summoned to assist in the undertaking.