Roman streets may not have had names, but Romans had many names for street. In English, we have avenues, boulevards, ways, and lanes, but I have only a hazy idea of how much they differ, if at all. How is a road really different from a street in the average American town? But the wonderfully fertile Latin vocabulary is much more specific. A pons—or bridge—was for traveling over water, yes, but archaeologist Alan Kaiser points out that it was also an appropriate spot for begging, fishing, and religious ceremonies. A forum was an open space suitable for trials, elections, political campaigns,
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