Life in the Roman World of Nero and St. Paul | Page 8

Roman armies marched to their camps, along them the government
despatches were carried by the imperial post, and along them were the
most conveniently situated and commodious houses of accommodation.
For their construction a special grant might be made by the Roman
treasury--the cost being comparatively small, since the work, when not
performed by the soldiers, was done by convicts and public slaves--and
for their upkeep a rate was apparently levied by the local corporations.
Besides the paved roads there was, needless to say, always a number of
smaller roads, many of them mere strips of four feet or so in width;
there were also short-cuts, by-paths, and ill-kept tracks of local and
more or less fortuitous creation.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--THE APPIAN WAY BY THE SO-CALLED
TOMB OF SENECA.]
Beside the great highways stood milestones in the shape of short pillars,
and generally there were in existence charts or itineraries, sometimes
pictured, giving all necessary directions as to the turnings, distances,
stopping-places, and inns, and even as to the sights worth seeing on the
way. Wherever there were such objects of interest--in Egypt, Syria,
Greece, or any other region of art, history, and legend--the traveller
could always find a professional guide, whose information was

probably about as reliable as that of the modern cicerone. In Rome
itself there was displayed, in one of the public arcades, a plan of the
empire, with notes explaining the dimensions and distances.
The vehicle employed by the traveller would depend upon
circumstances. You would meet the poor man riding on an ass, or
plodding on foot with his garments well girt; the better provided on a
mule; a finer person or an official on a horse; the more luxurious or
easy-going either in some form of carriage or borne in a litter very
similar to the oriental palanquin. To carriages, which were of several
kinds--two-wheeled, four-wheeled, heavy and light--it may be
necessary to make further reference; here it is sufficient to observe that,
in order to assist quick travelling, there existed individuals or
companies who let out a light form of gig, in which the traveller rode
behind a couple of mules or active Gaulish ponies as far as the next
important stopping-place, where he could find another jobmaster, or
keeper of livery-stables, to send him on further. The rich man,
travelling, as he necessarily would, with a train of servants and with
full appliances for his comfort, would journey in a coach, painted and
gilded, cushioned and curtained, drawn by a team showily caparisoned
with rich harness and coloured cloths. This must have presented an
appearance somewhat similar to that of the extravagantly decorated
travelling-coach of the fourteenth century. The ordinary man of modest
means would be satisfied with his mule or horse, and with his one or
two slaves to attend him. On the less frequented stretches of road,
where there was no proper accommodation for the night, his slaves
would unpack the luggage and bring out a plain meal of wine, bread,
cheese, and fruits. They would then lay a sort of bedding on the ground
and cover it with a rug or blanket. The rich folk might bring their tents
or have a bunk made up in their coaches.
Where there was some sort of lodging for man and horse the average
wayfarer would make the best of it. In the better parts of the empire and
in the larger places of resort there were houses corresponding in some
measure to the old coaching-inns of the eighteenth century; in the East
there were the well-known caravanserais; but for the most part the
ancient hostelries must have afforded but undesirable quarters. They

were neither select nor clean. You journeyed along till you came to a
building half wine-shop and store, half lodging-house. Outside you
might be told by an inscription and a sign that it was the "Cock" Inn, or
the "Eagle," or the "Elephant," and that there was "good
accommodation." Its keeper might either be its proprietor, or merely a
slave or other tenant put into it by the owner of a neighbouring estate
and country-seat. Your horses or mules would be put up--with a
reasonable suspicion on your part that the poor beasts would be cheated
in the matter of their fodder--and you would be shown into a room
which you might or might not have to share with someone else. In any
case you would have to share it with the fleas, if not with worse.
Perhaps you base brought your food with you, perhaps you send out a
slave to purchase it, perhaps you obtain it from the innkeeper. That is
your own affair. For the rest you must be prepared to bear with very
promiscuous and sometimes unsavoury company, and to possess
neither too nice a nose nor