The myth that all roads lead to Rome has long been a symbol of imperial grandeur, but a fresh analysis of the ancient transport network reveals a different picture. Two Greek cities — Corinth and Thessalonica — turned out to be among the most important hubs of the Roman Empire's overland routes, channeling more traffic through themselves than many other centers, including the capital itself.
The study, published in Nature Communications, relies on a digital map of nearly 300 thousand kilometers of Roman roads. The researchers applied network analysis methods to 10,5 thousand intersections and 14,9 thousand segments. They assessed how much each city served as an intermediary in the movement of people and goods by land at the scale of provinces and the entire empire.
Corinth in the province of Achaea and Thessalonica in Macedonia stood out as dominant centers: the roads in these provinces were built around a single key point rather than distributed evenly. Both cities combined a convenient position on land with access to the sea, which strengthened their role in trade and the movement of troops. The list of cities with the best connectivity also included Antioch, Ancyra, and Byzantium — all of them surpassed Rome in the efficiency of overland routes.
Such results call into question the familiar notion of the empire's centralized structure. Provincial capitals often turned out to be better situated for local and regional movement than the capital itself. Rome remained important, but not the only and not always the most efficient point of intersection of routes.
Modern methods of network analysis make it possible to see how geography and infrastructure influenced the daily lives of ancient people: merchants, soldiers, and pilgrims chose routes not by the political status of a city, but by the real speed and convenience of the journey. This is reminiscent of how navigation algorithms today plot optimal roads, ignoring historical prestige.
The discovery emphasizes that even in centralized empires, real connectivity often depends on local hubs that arose long before the conquest. The Greek cities retained their significance thanks to their fortunate location at the crossroads of natural routes.
Understanding ancient transport networks helps us better assess how strongly infrastructure determines the fates of regions today as well.
