Guys
Contenido
Las calzadas romanas variaban de simples caminos a calzadas pavimentadas. Según Ulpiano, había tres tipos de calzadas:[9].
Viae publicae, consular, praetoriae and military
The first type of road included the main public roads, built and maintained at public expense, and whose land belonged to the State. These roads led to the sea, to a city, to a public river (with a constant flow) or to another public road. Siculus Flaccus"), who lived under Trajan (98-117), calls them viae publicae regalesque,[9] and describes their characteristics as follows:
Roman roads were named after the censor who had ordered their construction or reconstruction. Often the same person later served as consul, but the name of the road dated from his tenure as censor. If the road was older than the censorship or was of unknown origin, it took the name of its destination or the region through which it mainly passed. The name of a road was changed if the censor ordered important works on it, such as paving, repaving or diverting it. With the term viae regales they are compared to the roads of the Persian kings (who probably organized the first system of public roads) and the Way of the Kings.[9] With the term viae militariae they are compared to the Icknield Way").[9].
However, there were many other people, in addition to the special officials, who from time to time, and for various reasons, tried to link their names to a great public service such as roads. Gaius Gracchus, when tribune of the people (123-122 BC), paved or fixed many of the public roads, and provided them with milestones and riding steps for horsemen. Again, Gaius Scribonius Curio, when tribune (50 BC), sought popularity by introducing a Lex Viaria, under which he had to be chief inspector or commissioner for five years. Dion Cassius mentions as one of the acts of strength of the triumvirs of 43 BC. C. (Octavio, Antonio and Lepido), who forced the senators to repair the public roads at their expense.
Viae privatae, rusticae, glareae and agrariae
The second category included private or rural roads, originally built by individuals, to whom their land corresponded and who had the power to dedicate them to public use.[9] These roads enjoyed a right of way, either in favor of the public or in favor of the owner of a specific property. Under the heading of viae privatae the roads that led from public roads to private farms or settlements were also included. Ulpiano considers that these roads are public in themselves.[9].
The elements that were outside the main road were connected to it by viae rusticae, or secondary roads.[9] Both main and secondary roads could be paved or unpaved, with a gravel surface. These prepared but unpaved roads were called viae glareae or sternendae ("to be scattered"). Beyond the secondary roads were the viae terrenae, "dirt roads."
Viae vicinales
The third category included roads located in villages, districts or crossroads, which crossed or led towards a vicus.[9] These roads led to a main road or other viae vicinales, without direct communication with a main road. They were considered public or private, depending on the fact of their original construction with public or private funds or materials. A road of this type, although privately built, became public when the memory of its private builders disappeared.[9].
Siculus Flaco describes the viae vicinales as roads "de publicis quae divertunt in agros et saepe ad alteras publicas perveniunt" (which deviate from public roads towards fields and often reach other public roads). The reparative authorities, in this case, were the magistri pagorum. They could require neighboring landowners to provide workers for the general repair of the viae vicinales or to maintain in good condition, at their expense, a certain length of the road that passed through their respective properties.[9].
Governance and financing
With the conquest of Italy, the established viae extended from Rome and its surroundings to the peripheral municipalities, sometimes overlapping previous roads. The construction of the viae was a military responsibility and was therefore under the jurisdiction of a consul. The process had a military name, viam munire, as if the road were a fortification. The municipalities, however, were responsible for their own roads, which the Romans called viae vicinales. The beauty and grandeur of the roads could make us believe that any Roman citizen could use them for free, but this was not the case. Tolls abounded, especially on bridges. They were often collected at the city gate. Transportation costs were even higher due to import and export taxes. These were just the fees for using the roads. From there, the costs of services during the trip increased.
Financing road construction was the responsibility of the Roman government. Maintenance, however, was generally left to the province. The officials in charge of raising funds were the curatores viarum. They had several methods. Individuals interested in the road could be asked to contribute to its repair. Senior officials could distribute donations for the roads. The censors, in charge of morality and public works, had to finance the reparations suâ pecuniâ (with their own money). Beyond these means, taxes were demanded.
A road connected two cities. The viae were generally located in the countryside. The construction and care of public roads, whether in Rome, Italy or in the provinces, was considered, in all periods of Roman history, a function of the greatest weight and importance. This is clearly demonstrated by the fact that the censors, in some respects the most venerable of the Roman magistrates, were the first to have the supreme authority to build and repair all roads and streets. In fact, it can be said that all officials, not excluding the emperors themselves, who succeeded the censors in this part of their duties, exercised delegated census jurisdiction.[9].
Costs and civic responsibilities
The return to censorship jurisdictions soon became a practical necessity, derived from the growth of the Roman domains and the various tasks that kept the censors in the capital. Some ad hoc official bodies acted successively as construction and repair authorities. In Italy, censorious responsibility passed to the commanders of the Roman armies, and later to special commissioners, and in some cases perhaps to local magistrates. In the provinces, the consul or praetor and his legates received authority to deal directly with the contractor.[9].
The care of the streets and roads within Roman territory was entrusted in early times to the censors. Over time, contracts were made to pave the streets inside Rome, including the climb to the Capitol, with lava, and to pave the roads outside the city with gravel. Sidewalks were also built. The councillors, probably by virtue of their responsibility for the freedom of traffic and the surveillance of the streets, cooperated with the censors and the organizations that succeeded them.[9].
Apparently, by the reign of Claudius (AD 41-54) the quaestors had become responsible for paving the streets of Rome, or at least shared that responsibility with the quattuorviri viarum.[9] It has been suggested that the quaestors were forced to purchase their right to an official career by personal outlays on the streets. There was certainly no lack of precedent for this imposed liberality, and the change made by Claudius may have been a mere change in the nature of the expense imposed on the quaestors.
Official organizations
The official organizations that first succeeded the censors in the care of the streets and roads were two:[9].
Both bodies were probably of ancient origin, but the actual year of their institution is unknown.[9] Little confidence can be placed in Pomponius, who states that the quattuorviri were instituted eodem tempore (at the same time) as the praetor peregrinus (i.e. around 242 BC) and the decemviri litibus iudicandis (unknown era).[9] The first mention of one or the other body appears in the Lex Julia Municipalis of the year 45 BC. C. The quattuorviri were later called Quattuorviri viarum curandarum. The extent of the duoviri's jurisdiction is derived from their full title as Duoviri viis extra propiusve urbem Romam passus mille purgandis.[note 2][9] Their authority extended to all roads between their respective exit gates in the city wall and the first milestone.[9].
In case of emergency in the condition of a particular road, influential and generous men were appointed, or acted voluntarily, as curatores or temporary commissioners to supervise the repair work.[9] A passage from Cicero attests to the dignity of this function. Among those who performed this duty in relation to certain roads was Julius Caesar, who became curator (67 BC) of the Appian Way and lavishly spent his own money on it. It also seems that some people acted alone and took responsibility for certain routes.
In rural districts, the magistri pagorum had authority to maintain the viae vicinales.[9] In Rome, each head of the family was legally responsible for the repairs of the part of the street that passed by his house.[9] The aediles were required to enforce this responsibility. The part of any street that passed through a temple or public building was repaired by the councilors at the expense of the public treasury. When a street ran between a public building or temple and a private house, the public treasury and the private owner shared the expenses equally.
Changes under Augustus
The government structure was modified by Augustus, who, in the course of his reconstitution of urban administration, abolished and created new positions in relation to the maintenance of public works, streets and aqueducts in and around Rome. Until then, the maintenance of public roads had been the responsibility of two groups of minor magistrates, the quattuorviri (a council of four magistrates to supervise roads within the city) and the duoviri (a council of two magistrates to supervise roads outside the city proper), which were part of the collegia known as vigintisexvirato.[9].
Augustus, finding the collegia, especially the boards dealing with road maintenance, ineffective, reduced the number of magistrates from 26 to 20. He abolished the duoviri entirely and was later granted the position of superintendent (according to Cassius Dion) of the road system connecting Rome to the rest of Italy and the provinces beyond. With this position, he granted himself and subsequent emperors a supreme authority that had originally belonged to the city's censors. The council of the quattuorviri remained as it was until at least the reign of Hadrian, between the years 117 and 138.[9] In addition, he appointed praetorians to the positions of "in charge of roads" and assigned each of them two lictors. He also made the position of curator of each of the great public roads a perpetual magistracy instead of a temporary commission.
Persons appointed under the new system were of senatorial or equestrian rank, depending on the relative importance of the roads assigned to them. It was up to each curator to grant contracts for the maintenance of their road and to ensure that the contractor in charge of said work carried it out faithfully, both in quantity and quality. Augustus also authorized the construction of sewers and eliminated obstacles to traffic, as the aediles did in Rome.[9].
Corbulo denounced the magistratus "Magistracy (Ancient Rome)") and mancipes of the Italian ways to Tiberius as an imperial commissioner (although probably endowed with extraordinary powers).[9] He persecuted them and their families with fines and imprisonment for 18 years (21-39 AD) and was later rewarded with a consulship by Caligula, who also shared the custom of condemning well-born citizens to work on the roads. It should be noted that under the reign of Claudius, Corbulo was brought to justice and forced to return the money he had extorted from his victims.
Other curators
It seems that special curators were sometimes appointed for a period, even after the institution of permanent magistrates with that title.[9] The emperors who succeeded Augustus exercised vigilant control over the state of public roads. Their names frequently appear in the inscriptions of road and bridge restorers. Thus, Vespasian, Titus, Domitian, Trajan and Septimius Severus were commemorated as such in Augusta Emerita. The Antonine Itinerary, which was probably a work of much earlier date, reissued in an improved and expanded form under one of the Antonine emperors, remains permanent evidence of the meticulous attention paid to the service of public roads.