Roman roads have lasted for millennia and were key to its military might

Known for their almost absurd straightness, Roman roads connected the empire's armies, messengers, and traders as imperial administrators sought to keep down rebellion and build up Roman wealth. Rome's highways were expertly engineered, well-patrolled, and easy to navigate.

Explore the system of ancient Roman roads with this interactive

The Itiner-e map includes unpaved secondary roads that connected farms and towns to the empire's primary routes. Explore routes, view three-dimensional elevation, and compare the old roads to contemporary ones with this sprawling interactive project.

Visualize ancient Rome in 3D with this aerial view

Researchers have compiled meticulous representations of ancient Rome in this video game-like depiction of the Eternal City from the air. For eight minutes, viewers can take in what Rome looked like two millennia ago, from the terracotta-topped homes to the Forum and Colosseum.

Estimate the costs of an ancient Roman vacation

Ancient Rome explained

Ancient Rome left a high water mark on ancient civilization with its pragmatism and administrative prowess, dominating through its efficient military, engineering, and administration. At least 50 million people—a quarter of the world population—inhabited the empire, covering 5 million square miles at its height.

Urban planning in ancient Rome

Ancient Rome represents one of the earliest examples of coordinated urban planning from a central government for which researchers have access to contemporary records. This review from MIT showcases ancient Roman cities built on various types of grids, from rectangular outlines to those shaped around two intersecting axes, with several examples and maps provided for each.

Twelve centuries of Roman history in 20 minutes

The Roman Empire may have been the world's first example of globalization, covering thousands of miles and crossing language barriers armed with Latin and short swords. Its legacy is nearly unparalleled in contemporary Europe, with nearly 50 Romance languages deriving from Latin.

Eleven aqueducts funneled water to Rome's 1 million inhabitants

The Roman Empire's capital city was home to about one million people at its peak and managed to provide running water to many of its homes, fountains, and public baths. This was made possible by the 11 aesthetically grand aqueducts that poured into ancient Rome from the countryside.

Structures from ancient Rome have endured for millennia because tiny pieces of lime in Roman concrete enabled it to self-heal and prevent cracks from spreading when exposed to water.

A reading of ancient Rome's best graffiti

Graffiti has been surprisingly common throughout history, and even the grandeur of ancient Rome's walls wasn't spared. This clever and funny video reads through some of the more notable messages relayed via graffiti in ancient Rome, from tidbits of wisdom like "A small problem gets larger if you ignore it" to more unsavory observations of lovers, friends, and enemies.

The ancient engineers inspiring modern building practices

Modern concrete structures need replacing every 50 to 100 years, so why are buildings by the Maya, ancient Rome, and ancient China still standing strong? This article details how scientists are looking into humanity's past for clues on how to craft long-lasting structures. Part of the problem is adopting old material recipes to hold up to modern demands.

The high-tech mechanisms of the Roman Colosseum

The Roman Colosseum is one of the most iconic amphitheaters in the world and still partially stands today. Aside from its sheer size, the arena was equipped with some of the most high-tech engineering from the classical world, including sophisticated lifts, a huge retractable awning, and an underground network of tunnels, elevators, and trapdoors.

Stonehenge was built using giant wooden rollers and precisely carved tongue-and-groove joints to lock the stones in place.

This short animation shows how human beings managed to lug 30-ton stones over miles of prehistoric English countryside and stand them up The Stone Age engineering involved using giant wooden rollers and carving precisely interlocking tongue-and-groove joints to hold the heavy stones in place.

Da Vinci’s ingenious self-supporting bridge

Without using glue or nails, the brilliant polymath Leonardo Da Vinci was able to construct a sturdy bridge of wood logs. This video unpacks the genius civil engineering behind this concept and offers a visual demonstration of how it worked. See how Da Vinci accomplished this feat without using permanent parts, and how his bridge got even stronger as weight and force was added.

Learn about how highways are designed and the geometry behind what makes them safe and efficient.

See a collection of ancient Roman coins used on the Silk Roads

As ancient Rome's appetite for eastern luxuries grew, long-distance trade routes linking the Mediterranean to Asia emerged along what became known as the Silk Road. Without shared language or legal systems, merchants could use the reliable Roman coins to exchange with other cultures. This exhibit features gold and silver pieces bearing the portraits of emperors and Latin inscriptions.

‘Roman military pensions’ were among the first known pensions in history

Instituted by the first Roman emperor, Augustus, around 13 BCE, these early iterations of pensions made it so soldiers sometimes received about a decade's worth of their pay, plus some land to live on. Augustus instituted these pensions to secure loyalty and reduce the risk of coups and unrest. This video includes more fun tidbits about the history of retirement.

How ancient Romans invested and worked

The first stock exchange didn't open for business until the early 1600s, but that didn't stop the Ancient Romans from working and investing their money centuries before. While Romans are better known for their political inventions than their economic ones, understanding how they viewed money can help paint a better picture of the Roman mindset that created systems like democracy. Read this article to learn more.

Ancient Romans helped develop modern cheese production techniques

The ancient Romans loved cheese and experimented with different processes to elevate its flavor, like aging. Some of their innovations, like Pecorino Romano, you can still find today. Others, like the smoked goat-milk Caseus, we only know about through historical records.

A history of Rome and wine

Wine and winemaking were integral parts of everyday Roman life. Wine was used medicinally and for religious rites, as well as for pleasure. It also contributed to the expansion of the Roman empire as wine and grapes were traded throughout the Mediterranean. Roman winemaking practices spread as the empire grew. Without Rome, wine may never have grown into what it became, and vice versa.

Watch a 3D animation of Pompeii's final day.

What was the Great Inca Road?

In little more than 100 years, it grew from a small kingdom in the highlands of Peru to become the largest empire in the Americas. Read about the critical role played by the Great Inca Road.

The Maya built their cities with advanced engineering

Maya cities featured pyramids, palaces, causeways, ball courts, and water-management systems that were engineered to support large populations—often tens of thousands—without the use of metal tools, draft animals, or wheeled transport.

Experts reconstruct Pompeii’s daily life—and whether disaster could strike again

This documentary utilizes archaeology, X-rays, and 3D reconstructions to reconstruct what the streets, homes, and rituals of Pompeii looked like before 79 CE. Scientists also use satellite imaging to track landslide risks that could damage the site today.

The rise and fall of the Byzantine Empire

A short but informative TED-Ed video summarizing the most important aspects of Byzantine civilization: how it all started, why Constantinople was so special, a few remarkable Byzantine authors (including Princess Anna Comnena, historian of her father’s reign), the Ottoman conquest, and why don’t just call the Byzantines “Romans.”

The impressive walls of Constantinople

This video explores the land walls of Constantinople, built on the orders of Theodosius II in the mid-fifth century. They consisted of a triple line of defenses, studded with hundreds of towers and supplemented with a moat. The walls were besieged dozens of times, but were only broken in 1453 by the power of Ottoman cannons. As repaired by the Ottomans, the walls are still largely intact today.

Ancient Romans sometimes lobbed insults through graffiti

Graffiti was used to communicate ideas, offer advice, and, not unlike the internet, talk some trash. That was especially true with tourists, who sometimes scrawled messages on the pyramids, including one person who complained, "I can not read the hierogylphics." In response, someone replied, "Why do you care that you can not read the hieroglyphics? I do not understand your concern."

Why are ancient ruins underground?

When cities fall into disrepair, it's often easier to flatten what you can and build on top. This is why modern archaeologists frequently discover ruins underground, revealing generational layers of cities rebuilt over time. This video explores major examples of this principle, from ancient Troy to even modern Seattle.

Machine learning produces photorealistic portraits of Roman emperors.

Toronto-based designer Daniel Voshart used photo editing and machine learning to catch a glimpse of Ancient Rome’s emperors. Employing contemporary descriptions, statues, and paintings, Voshart created lifelike portraits of 54 emperors including Augustus Caesar and Hadrian as well as the more infamous Nero and Caligula, though he stresses they’re only artistic interpretations.

Visualizing Byzantium in the year 1200

This is a computer reconstruction of the Byzantine capital at its apogee, just before the Fourth Crusade. Alongside detailed renderings of the Hippodrome and Hagia Sophia, it includes dozens of the imperial city’s less famous monuments, many of which can still be found in modern Istanbul. The reconstruction is a work in progress, and the Byzantium 1200 X account routinely posts updates.

How the US built the Interstate Highway system

As late as World War II, it took a well-prepared motorist roughly 10 days to cross America from coast to coast in a car. That all changed when the nation undertook its biggest public infrastructure project in 1956, the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act, initiating a 36-year, $114B mission to lay 41,000 miles of roads across America. Watch a smart overview here.

Mapping the shifts in ancient Greek territories

The jagged coastlines and many islands of the eastern Mediterranean peninsulas cultivated a seafaring civilization, which helped the Greeks colonize and trade in the Middle East, North Africa, and the rest of Europe. See the evolution of their territory with this quick animated map video.

Roman terror was key to its centuries-long dominance

Historians like Polybius recorded Rome's violent tactics in detail, including the enslavement of entire populations and the mass killing of whole cities. Even as terror and violence proved effective in war, many Romans came to view the tactics with skepticism.

The mosaics of San Vitale, Italy's Byzantine city

This video explores the unique artistic heritage of Ravenna, the center of Byzantine power in Italy. The city’s churches and baptistries still sparkle with a dazzling array of Byzantine mosaics. The most famous of these, in the Church of San Vitale, show Justinian and his wife Theodora with their courtiers. A visit to Ravenna – or at least a look at this video – is highly recommended to anyone interested in Byzantine history or art.

Amateur engineers built America’s first great infrastructure project

With no engineering schools in the US, the Erie Canal was designed and built by self-taught amateurs who improvised new methods and became known as the “Erie School of Engineering.”

See the major Egyptian monuments in high definition

The massive, hard-to-imagine mammoth structures can be viewed here in 4K, dramatic detail with this stunning video. Visit the Great Pyramids of Giza, the temples at Karnak and Luxor, the Valley of the Kings, and more millennia-old monuments.

A primer on reading the rock layers of roadcuts

Road construction often requires cutting through layers of rocks, coincidentally exposing millions of years of rock formation. This simple guide introduces basic rock types, what causes curves and folds, and the major rock formations in regions around the US.