Traffic and Congestion in the Roman Empire

by Cornelis van Tilburg

The first book to ever examine ancient Roman traffic, this well-illustrated volume looks in detail at the construction of Roman road, and studies the myriad of road users of the Roman civilians, wagons and animals, the cursus publicus, commercial use and the army. Through this examination, Cornelis van Tilburg reveals much of town planning in ancient the narrow paths of older cities, and the wider, chessboard-patterned streets designed to sustain heavy traffic.
He discusses toll points and city gates as measures taken to hamper traffic, and concludes with a discussion as to why the local governments' attempts to regulate the traffic flow missed their targets of improving the infrastructure.
This book will interest any student, scholar or enthusiast in Roman history and culture.

Genres: History

264 pages, Paperback

First published October 25, 2006

Reviews

[Colm · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quite dry, worth a flick through if you're interested on the subject, but I can't recommend a thorough read. A better title for this book would be "Roman Transport Infrastructure", as not only does that topic occupy the majority of the book, but the traffic/congestion element is all either speculative or tangential quotes from writers of the time.

The section on road building is very interesting, especially the discussions surrounding tunnel boring and drainage. Discussions around inns and stables were also very informative - ultimately the book is remarkably thorough in it's research.

But the book spends a great deal of time on facts of rather little interest - unless you were writing a needlessly comprehensive literature review. It goes through at least 13 different gates around the empire, listing over tens of pages, the widths, lengths and heights of each passage, roadway and door. Each entry repeats the same points: some arches were for pedestrians, others for vehicles. A summary table at the end renders these repetitive descriptions unnecessary

The section on "Opening and Closing Times of City Gates" is another example of this redundancy. Key points—such as "There's not a lot of info available...", "Many gates were erected in peacetime...", "The walls did not have a defensive function...", and "The walls defined city limits" —are reiterated multiple times in overly verbose ways, making the reading experience frustratingly repetitive.

[Sam Maloney · Rating 3 out of 5]

I mean, I would not recommend this book to anybody without a preexisting interest in either the classics or urban planning. If you have those interests though, it's a well written and comprehensive book covering Roman urban and road plaaning.

[Jelte · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hij was voor mijn studie, relatief droog. Maar het heeft wel een paar goede momenten.