Pigs are often inscribed the earliest found is dated to AD49 showing the mines working only six years after the invasion. Lead pigs from Charterhouse have been found along this route including the port further examples have been found in France and a utensil found at Pompeii. The Romans invading Britannia had nearly four centuries of road building experience behind them.Ī Roman road starting from the lead mines at Charterhouse, led to Roman Winchester and on to a port at Bitterne (now inSouthampton). Gradients were eased by cuttings, viaducts, embankments and terraces. By the time of Claudius’ invasion of Britain in AD43, a dense network of well-engineered, all-weather roads covered Italy and the more Romanised areas of the Empire. The first recorded Roman road was started, according to Livy’s History of Rome, in 312 BC. Fragments of a huge map of the city of Rome at a scale of 240:1 survives and fragments of a public stone land registry from Orange in France ( Roman Arausio) showing roads and a river whose representation can fit a modern map. Some suggestive scraps of evidence survive, such as Frontinus ( `de Aquis urbis Romae`, written as Curator of Rome’s aqueducts, before later becoming Governor of Britannia) states, “I also took care to make maps… I could discuss the situation as if I was on the spot”. Hugh Davies ( Roads in Roman Britain) suggests that route surveys included large scale mapping, although no evidence exists. For example starting from the Devon/Dorset border, how did Roman engineers know in which direction to point the Fosse Way to arrive at Lincoln, nearly 200 miles away. The question posed was, how to ensure directness overall for the whole route of the road. Straightness of Roman roads is their defining characteristic and has spawned many ideas about how it was achieved.
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