Mobility, roads, and milestones

Abstract

In the expansion of the Roman Empire, mobility and its infrastructural basis of roads and waterways played a crucial role in securing stability of this state over the ten centuries of its existence. In this multi-ethnic confederation, Latin contributed to this in serving as a vehicular language in the literal and figurative sense in the West. This is reflected by epigraphic monuments alongside roads, especially milestones. Although these distance markers display Latin as the language of power, divergent sources declare that the implementation was not all-encompassing, with exceptions such as the Celtic leuga reflecting the pragmatic approach of the Roman state.