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Roman Roads (in Gaul)
Historical Event
The Infrastructure Spine of Gaul, 2nd century BC – Merovingian Era
Historical Accuracy
The Antonine Itinerary and the Peutinger Table are genuine ancient sources documenting this road network, and standard Roman-infrastructure scholarship (such as Raymond Chevallier's work) confirms the network's scale and importance. The series' Southern Gaul pentagram geography is a fictional framework, but it correctly relies on real, historically documented Roman roads (the Via Domitia prominent among them) to make that geography navigable and inhabited in the first place.
Historical Significance
Sources:
- Primary Sources
- The Antonine Itinerary, the Peutinger Table
- Modern Historians
- Raymond Chevallier (Roman Roads); standard Roman-infrastructure surveys
The roughly 21,000 km network of Roman-built roads across Gaul formed the essential infrastructure backbone that made travel, trade, and governance possible throughout the Merovingian period — the same roads the Franks inherited wholesale from Roman administration continued to structure movement across Gaul for centuries after Rome's political authority there had ended.
Historical Era
Book I (background)
Novel Relevance:
- Directly underpins the series' Southern Gaul pentagram geography (Bugarach, Gascogne, Le Rhône, Rennes, Septimania) from the Canon Timeline doc's World Geography section — these roads are the reason that geography was navigable and inhabited at all. The Via Domitia in particular runs straight through the series' 'home' anchor region.
Key Facts:
- Roughly 21,000 km of Roman-built roads networked Gaul at the height of the system.
- The Via Domitia, running through Septimania and southern Gaul, is among the best-attested and most important of these roads for this series' own geography.
- Roads were originally built for military movement and imperial administration, but became the backbone of trade and, later, Merovingian-era travel.
- Attested directly in ancient sources including the Antonine Itinerary and the Peutinger Table.
roman-roads-in-gaul
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