The Via in Ancient Rome
"The most enduring monuments of Rome are not the ruins of empire that even now lie scattered over much of Europe and Asia, nor are they those imposing remains, saturated with history. Which mutely stand in Rome's Forum. The most enduring monuments are those ubiquitous those overwhelming Roman Roads." (p.8 Hackey)
The intellectual persuit behind this website is the attempt to comprehend the multifaceted functions of the artifact within daily life. The term artifact has the connotation of something ancient and of the past but I am trying to avoid this connotation when I use the word. Although the roads in Rome are to a large extent nothing more than ruins at this point, their function within Roman society is comprable in many ways to modern roads. I make this correlation to facilitate the deconstruction of the roman Road purely as an artifact. In order to grasp the range of functions the road served in Rome, it would help to appreciate the work roads perform in our society. Yes, the road allows us to get from point A to point B, but is that all a road does? Are roads not also a vital part of how our culture functions? Why are roads built the way they are? A small yet poignant example of how roads are tied to cultural identity and how they uphold societal norms is the fact that the British drive on the left side of the road. Ask any American about differences between Americans and the British and one example sure to surface is the fact that their roads are different.
*British and New Zealanders drive and the right side of the road while Americans drive on the left*
Roads also are today, as they were in Rome, arenas for spectacle. Today they most obvious form of spectacle are parades. More subtle spectacles include displays of wealth (type of car driven), billboards, and accidents. America has a well known phenomenan called 'rubber-necking.' This tendency is an example of how the road has come to be a source of entertainment and a place where drama unfolds. In Rome the via was a place where people went to see and be seen. Triumphal parades [link] were the highest form of spectacle on the Roman street but spectacle was once again achieved in more subtle and nuanced ways. Artifacts, roads being one example of this vast category, have the obvious and practical functions that to a large degree dictate their form. But these artifacts that are so imbedded in daily life often perform functions that we do not see without looking more carefully with an analytical and inquisitive mind.
*The first of the ancient Roman roads to be paved (312 BC) by the consul Appio Claudio Cieco, the Appian Way initially went as far as Capua. It was later extended to Taranto and Brindisi on the Adriatic Sea (190 BC).*
The artifact is a black box filled with connections unseen by the untrained eye. In an attempt to grasp the vast complex and illusive connections within the black box of the Roman road I have subdivided what I see as the main functions of the Roman road. As a basis for any persuit regarding arficats it is important to have a grasp on the practical history behind those artifacts [link]. Knowledge of the history and the form of the artifact is the basis for the understanding of the functions that the object performs. Form not only has the capacity to shine light on the most basic functions of the object but can show in its changes the changes the relationship they have with their human creators. Roman roads performed two major functions within the society they served: they fascilitated a basic infrastructure of the system [link] and they upheld social constructs [link]. These two functions are very broad and are meant to encompass a range of different tasks.
*The Via Appia, 'the queen of roads' constructed to connect Rome and its port city Capua. (p. 26 Hackey)*
History and Structure of Roman Roads
The Basic Infrastructure They Fascilitated
Similar Contemporary Research
The exploration I have made on this site into Roman roads and how they functioned within their society has been performed in a similar contemporary context by one of my class-mates. Dave Daly has used many of the same analytical tools to deconstruct the roles of the Bay bridge. Dave Daly: The Bay Bridge
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