The famous Roman roads are to be found not only throughout Italy, where
they were constructed in various directions from the capital, but in
every land once conquered by Rome and stamped by her, as she stamped all
her conquests, with ineffaceable marks of her possession and her power.
These great roads were first made with the military purpose of providing
a way that should be solid at all seasons of the year, for the march of
legions and their heavy baggage through districts subdued by Roman arms.
They were wonderful pieces of determined practical engineering, and in
order to carry them straight to the points aimed at, marshes and hollows
were filled up, or spanned with viaducts; mountains were tunneled,
streams were bridged; no labor, time, or money was spared.