Did 'all roads lead to Rome'? New study finds other cities in the empire were better connected.

Contrary to popular belief, the claim that "all roads lead to Rome" may not hold true according to a new study examining the Roman Empire's road system. Researchers from Aarhus University in Denmark have discovered that several other cities within the empire were better connected than the Eternal City itself during antiquity. Cities such as Antioch, Ancyra (modern-day Ankara), Byzantium (present-day Istanbul), and Corinth were strategically better positioned for land travel, according to their findings published in the journal Nature Communications on September 15, 2026.

At the height of its power in the year 117 AD, the Roman Empire spanned nearly 2.1 million square miles (5.5 million square kilometers) across Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. The research team compiled a vast digital atlas called "Itiner-e," mapping out approximately 186,000 miles (300,000 kilometers) of Roman roads. However, they found that the most important land route did not even pass through Rome.

Instead, the ancient road network of Ostia, the seaport located at the mouth of the Tiber River, remains visible today. This route follows the North African and Levantine coasts, passes near Antioch and Ankara (ancient Ancyra), and then crosses over to Europe at Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul), before moving through the Po Valley and Milan into France, as noted by co-author Tom Brughmans, a professor of classical archaeology at Aarhus University.

Several factors contributed to the better connectivity of these cities. Corinth, for example, was well-linked to the road network due to its position linking the Peloponnesian Peninsula with the rest of Greece. Ancyra was similarly favored because it served as a crucial transportation hub for Anatolia. The ancient city of Rome, situated in the Italian Peninsula, was not as well-connected to the road system, as it was positioned halfway down the peninsula.

Brughmans explained that Rome is an "appendix to the empire's road network," and that the most central road actually bypasses Rome entirely, following the opposite Adriatic coastline.

The study also revealed that Roman roads typically adhered to a more natural, straighter course, although they were not as straight as modern-day roads. While modern road construction avoids sharp turns and aims to build as straight as possible through the modification of terrain, ancient Roman roads were constructed with the terrain's natural features in mind, making them more flexible for travel at the time.

Additionally, Rome's central location in the empire may have played a significant role in its water and river transportation capabilities, despite the study not directly focusing on those routes. Brughmans emphasized that Rome's central position is due to its physical location in the center of the Mediterranean, on the intersection of major shipping lanes, rather than its road system.

Future research should expand upon this study by examining sea and river transport and integrating the findings with the analysis of Roman roads to provide a comprehensive understanding of the empire's transportation networks.