Rome no longer central to Roman road network according to new study

The old saying that all roads lead to Rome is not true according to a new study published in the scientific journal Nature Communications. When the researchers have analyzed the road network of the Roman Empire, other cities appear instead as more central hubs, such as Constantinople - today's Istanbul.

- When we look at all land transport throughout the Roman Empire, there is one road that is the most central road through the empire itself, and that road does not go through Rome, says Tom Brughmans, associate professor at the Department of Culture and Society at Aarhus University and co-author of the new study, to CNN.

The study is based on a digital atlas of the Roman road network that Itiner-e published last year. It is compiled using historical sources, excavation reports, satellite images and historical data.

The database contains almost 300,000 kilometers of roads.

Rome was the political and economic center of the empire, but its geographic location made the city more central to Mediterranean shipping than the land road system. According to the researchers, the most central land route went through North Africa, further east through present-day Turkey and cities such as Antioch and Ankara, then through Constantinople and then north of Rome, via present-day Milan.

The study also challenges other established beliefs about Roman roads – they were not as straight as is often claimed. Straight roads were built only where the terrain allowed. In more difficult terrain, the roads became more crooked.

The Roman road network connected large parts of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East and has left traces in modern settlement patterns, according to the study.