een, was
that of the Phoenicians by sea. They founded factories, or neutral
grounds for trade, at appropriate spots all along the Mediterranean
coasts, and the Greeks soon followed their example in the AEgean
and Black Seas. But at an early date, as we know from the Bible,
caravan routes were established between Egypt, Syria, and Mesopotamia,
and later on these were extended into Farther Asia. But in Europe
the great road-builders were the Romans. Rome owed its importance
in the ancient world to its central position, at first in Italy,
and then in the whole of the Mediterranean. It combined almost
all the advantages necessary for a town: it was in the bend of
a river, yet accessible from the sea; its natural hills made it
easily defensible, as Hannibal found to his cost; while its central
position in the Latian Plain made it the natural resort of all
the Latin traders. The Romans soon found it necessary to utilise
their central position by rendering themselves accessible to the
rest of Italy, and they commenced building those marvellous roads,
which in most cases have remained, owing to their solid construction.
"Building" is the proper word to use, for a Roman road is really a
broad wall built in a deep ditch so as to come up above the level
of the surface. Scarcely any amount of traffic could wear this
solid substructure away, and to this day throughout Europe traces
can be found of the Roman roads built nearly two thousand years
ago. As the Roman Empire extended, these roads formed one of the
chief means by which the lords of the world were enabled to preserve
their conquests. By placing a legion in a central spot, where many
of these roads converged, they were enabled to strike quickly in
any direction and overawe the country. Stations were naturally
built along these roads, and to the present day many of the chief
highways of Europe follow the course of the old Roman roads. Our
modern civilisation is in a large measure the outcome of this network
of roads, and we can distinctly trace a difference in the culture of
a nation where such roads never existed--as in Russia and Hungary,
as contrasted with the west of Europe, where they formed the best
means of communication. It was only in the neighbourhood of these
highways that the fullest information was obtained of the position
of towns, and the divisions of peoples; and a sketch map like the
one already given, of the chief Roman roads of antiquity, gives
also, as it