Roman Road Myths - You NEVER knew 

Survivor bias.

A bit like the planes that survived being shot at during the wars where they missed the engine and body. The ones that were didn't survive at all.

@@GryphLane Initially the RAF rejected the proposals by operational researchers that they should armour the undamaged parts of aircraft that had returned with damage for exactly that reason. The military initially said, "we need to protect these parts - look at the damage!" Eventually, they did accept the argument about which parts should be protected.

The Tuscan Island Giglio (Isola Del Giglio) has a wonderful Roman road all the way from Porto to Castillio. Not bad for what amounts to a beautiful but over-sized volcanic crag. It doesn’t have a hugely deep Aggar so has very few layers if any over the original flags and cobbles. There are also many single arch bridges in the Alps. Some are so slender you’ll marvel at how the heck they ever got built.

I've said the same thing about music. We only remember the good stuff from the past, there was plenty of dross in the charts as well.

...and hedge diving. Please... never forget hedge diving. 😊

They had slave labour as well.

Why odd? Isn't infrastructure important?

@@tgbluewolf too much work for any government to approve. Anything beyond the bare minimum for usefulness is a redundancy.

..... Do you know Jesus Christ can set you free from sins and save you from hell today Jesus Christ is the only hope in this world no other gods will lead you to heaven There is no security or hope with out Jesus Christ in this world come and repent of all sins today Today is the day of salvation come to the loving savior Today repent and do not go to hell Come to Jesus Christ today Jesus Christ is only way to heaven Repent and follow him today seek his heart Jesus Christ can fill the emptiness he can fill the void Heaven and hell is real cone to the loving savior today Today is the day of salvation tomorrow might be to late come to the loving savior today Romans 6.23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. John 3:16-21 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. Mark 1.15 15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Hebrews 11:6 6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Jesus

​@@KeyserSoze23 i mean to be fair most roads wouldn't be built like a what we think of a "proper" roman road, those were more like highways that were important for the military to move fast and it was military that built them. You aren't in permanent war on every front anyway and have a standing army that you pay either way might as well put them to use making roads that will be vital later on for campaigns, most other roads would probably just be dirt or whatever

Today his descendants still can't get to Catterick because the roads are still bloody awful and the Tesla is still charging. Comme Ies Francais dit "Plus la change...

I like the Ea Nasir tablet

@@philhawley1219to be fair they’ve sorted the road to the east of Catterick and it’s the Tank Road to the west but yeah he’ll be still waiting for his car to charge.

@@philhawley1219 Making charcoal would have been a lot easier if the Romans had Tesla’s though. Just pop some wood in the back and wait for it to catch fire.

@davidmarsden Did the Romans have traffic cones ? I wonder what an ancient Roman contraflow looked like ? 😆😁😃

The ditch is called the slang. Think about it.I gained my PhD. from Roman roads.

Yeah until somebody else comes along and proves this video as a myth.

Now that's a teacher!!

We still use cattle and horses and sheep to graze the ditches to keep the grass down so we can see either side of the road but the ditches are for drainage.

In Australia the grassy verge of each country road, about 10m wide on each side, is called “the long paddock” for grazing, when taking the stock to the rail head and transport to market.

@@teeanahera8949 is that how they transport still today?

Great artist. Have a book of his paintings so will have a look.

That's the one.

Chalk paths? Just been having a look online

Nature takes over fast. Roots push stones and material apart. Grasses trap dust and soil builds up, basically burying the road under inches or feet of leaf mould and soil. Frost heave moves things about. Unless you maintain any structure, nature will dismantle it relatively quickly.

Ravilious - my most admired painter

How had the chicken been cooked?

@@ColinH1973 I think he means the bones were chucked into the hole to help fill it in.

@@ColinH1973 Pan fried with a lemon butter sauce.

Sweet and sour.

I'm not sure who you are talking about. Have you ever heard the expression 'what did the Romans ever do for us"? Who do you think built the roads, buildings, sanitation, water supply...?

​@@roginkUnder direction of the Roman engineers. It was a "both/and" situation, not "either/or".

I think a key real difference is that the advanced mathematics and modeling exist today to avoid "overbuilding" and spending extra money to make something far stronger and more durable than actually required. The amount of material and work that went into the roadbeds of the nicest Roman roads is just nuts when you realize the heaviest thing expected to travel on it was a loaded down cart pulled by animals traveling at walking speed. You could build that exact same road today, and it would be absolutely destroyed by heavy trucks driving on it within a few years, but it was complete overkill 2000 years ago. They were clearly overbuilding/engineering in many cases. I'm not sure if that was because they really intended those structures to last thousands of years, or if they just didn't have the modeling and data to know exactly what the minimum requirements were for a given structure, but I suspect it was a combination of the two. When people say "then the engineers got involved" I think they're referring to modern engineers with advanced modeling who can build you the cheapest road or bridge that will meet traffic needs for the next 50 years. If you put out a bid for a highway bridge that would last 1000 years today, you'd probably get some pretty insanely overbuilt designs with a pretty insane price tag to go with it.

@PailWhitewick You really need to remember something here Paul, and it’ll do you a lot of good to recall this in the future when titling your output: you are a RU-vidr. Despite what RU-vidrs themselves think (a massive part of the problem), 98.7% of all RU-vid uploaders are below the median intelligence level of their respective countries. From what I’ve seen, you are in no way part of the remaining 1.3% of the RU-vid Content Creator Community. As such, just because you have only just found something out, doesn't mean that others don’t know these facts. You’re below not above average intelligence laddie, try to focus on that fact. In such a position as yours, it would be ridiculous of you to assume what other, more intelligent people do or do not know. Intellectually speaking, you have far more in common with the foam that accumulates on the surface of ponds than you do with the average man in the street. I know you think yourself intelligent because you’ve called yourself ‘an expert’ and had started (but never finished) to read a single book a few years ago. Though this is foolhardiness in the extreme as you are an utter dunce. You have trouble speaking most of the time and I’m sure I’ve seen your wife tying your shoes for you on occasion because you couldn’t remember the sequence. I’ve definitely watched her tying SOMETHING with laces… Now, i can say this to you with full confidence as I’ve had the misfortune of watching a couple of your videos. The ones where you start assuming you know the courses of forgotten canals even though you’re in completely the wrong place while doing it. You’ve given me a hearty chuckle a few times with your imbecility. You’re like a five year old trapped in the body of a sort of a man. So, if you’d be so kind in the future as to not assume what other people do and don’t know - purely because you think yourself superior and that you have some species of superior knowledge that only you, a RU-vidr could learn - which you categorically do not, (see above, I know it’ll take you a couple of weeks to read this far), it’d be most appreciated. Just think how self-aggrandising and insulting it is to other people (a lot of which have forgotten more about your favourite subjects than you will ever learn) to tell them what they don’t know because unlike you, they’re not a RU-vidrs so they could know. It’s a bit pathetic and if you have to put others down without provocation, it shows a massive lack of self-esteem on your part. Your title did provoke a response from your immediate betters i.e. me. Just for clarity and outright transparency, i am an absolute, thoroughbred, 24 karat, 12 cylinder idiot in normal life, yet I am akin to a certain Mr Tesla in comparison with yourself. When you get simple things woefully wrong, i genuinely feel a surge of pity for you and more so for your wife/carer. If you don’t like being put in your place and want no more of it in the future, I would strongly recommend that you don’t claim such ridiculous things in your titles. Please keep up the terrible work, one shouldn’t make fun of the less fortune of course. That is until said member of the cerebrally-challenged starts thinking himself smarter than normal people. Everyone heeds a reminder of their place within society occasionally, if they get above themselves. Don’t worry though, it’s not all woe and misery for you, you might even be able to get a job refilling the fridges with milk at a local supermarket. Good luck with that and remembering your very low place on the intelligence scale. Good day.

Thank you very much!

Eventually some lord would send a message down to the locals to "mend thy ways".

Well, you know these Property Developers. They most likely have it earmarked for Toll-Booths, Taverns, and Luxury Huts..😀😀

Perhaps the wide sections were lanes for overtaking or the hard shoulder for breakdowns? A column of marching men would be as annoying as a modern horse box or a farm vehicle if there were no overtaking lanes for mounted travellers or horse-drawn vehicles.

@@MrBulky992 There would also have been plenty of farm vehicle in the form of oxdriven carriages.

I think I even mentioned the Appian way as one of the few exceptions!

​@@pwhitewickI have no idea of what romans roads looked like in Britain. But here is a document of an ancient road in Spain from which you can see that parts of it are constructed 'like in the books', some not. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-cH2vCHYEzvE.htmlsi=fwy-Sl8yrOtybrRG We have the same in the south of France.

They are fascinating indeed, just need to try and work out how I can build that into a story

It's pretty simple, the Romans just aimed for a feature in the landscape and went straight for it, up hill and down Dale, until they reached it then they aimed for something else.

As an ex roadbuilding labourer, the other possibility is it's over a swamp or across a waterway. Large rocks let the water flow underneath your surface.

@@tsubadaikhan6332 Yep it's for drainage and more or less the same technique is used in roads and railway embankments today. Though as you said in modern roads it isn't to drain rainwater but rather groundwater, and also to allow for some expansion if the water freezes.

This would definitely make for a decent video???

@@pwhitewick Oh heck yes, plenty to film around there mate, but i'ts National Trust i think so you'd have to check about filming during the tour/on the actual grounds i guess. (you can see/film plenty around the site too tho). Decent amount of Roman presence in the area to investigate to make a vid. If you'd like to, happy to meet for a brew if you're near-by fyi ;)

I think Roman roads where build to meet very serious standards of quality,close to what a German autoban is now. Those roman roads where close to pedestrians,only wheel cars and horses would ride cos it was a very fast road. Road where build indeed by experts&contractors,not military units,that is another big myth. Roman people had tons of money to expend with locals if possible,if not they could import the people to work and build the roads. To build an autoban you need a bunch of experts/engineers and tons of people who knows what are doing,same in the past. It is very easy to find testimony of the experts working on the roads by the amount of things they lost while building them hehehe. No other people had the money to build roads like the Roman Empire till very recent,so many many roads of that period where used and abuse,many where destroyed by pure ignorance and many others you still walk on them but you have no clue.

I guess the ditch would be too small to act as any significant defence.

These ditches are so small you can jump over them so they'd be useless as defense.

That is interesting

Many thanks

Thanks again!

Thanks Simon

Glad you enjoyed it!

Yup, I think mainly Romans would consider 1 in 4 the max. Very few up to 1 in 6

Please do!

Makes sense. Although all Roman horses where unshod.

@@pwhitewick I wasn't sure about if they were or not so knowing this it makes more sense to have a more forgiving track for them to use.

@@NSYresearch well its an okay idea i guess but idk how true that is i doubt shoulder would be maintained much and there might be some holes opening up hidden by grass which would be dangerous when horse is going full speed, it could be less taxing on the horse but also much more dangerous

Still being taught today. Go find a modern road construction book.... still there!!

Plenty of false information taught in schools... Thomas Edison didn't invent the light bulb. Crop rotation - pretty much abandoned around the first world war, still taught when I went to school. We only use 10% of our brain. Our tongues taste in 5 zones (remember the map?) Dinosaurs were cold bloodied Etc

Always does. Much appreciated

Agreed. Check out our prior videos on this for the full context

Many thanks!

Oooh epic. Do you have a paper available to read on that?

@@pwhitewick coflein.gov.uk/media/272/409/652273.pdf With me in purple on the front cover. See Fig 9 :) And my bum second from the left in Fig 19! Oct 2017 :)

I think so too. Well... there are one or two. But the other 340 😊

Me neither. Turns out they might not be... Ditches.

..... Do you know Jesus Christ can set you free from sins and save you from hell today Jesus Christ is the only hope in this world no other gods will lead you to heaven There is no security or hope with out Jesus Christ in this world come and repent of all sins today Today is the day of salvation come to the loving savior Today repent and do not go to hell Come to Jesus Christ today Jesus Christ is only way to heaven Repent and follow him today seek his heart Jesus Christ can fill the emptiness he can fill the void Heaven and hell is real cone to the loving savior today Today is the day of salvation tomorrow might be to late come to the loving savior today Romans 6.23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. John 3:16-21 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. Mark 1.15 15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Hebrews 11:6 6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Jesus

Fair!

Our pleasure!

I have a book somewhere in my library that set out to prove most roads in Gaul were already there when Ceasar arrived

Almost certainly they followed the same routes. The trade routes... but almost certainly they built new and straightet.

Get the book "The Old Straight Track" by Alfred Watkins. Those arrow-straight roads and ways predate the Romans by at least a couple of thousand years. ❤😊

There is a "roman" road that leads to a Fort near me in rural South wales, large sections of it were bedrock and pass by a bronze age standing stone, there are also many burial mounds near the road that pre date the Romans and very few alternate routes into the area. none as flat or stable, I don't think the celts took the more steep difficult paths till Romans came along.