2 - The Roman Road

The road system was one of the most important and ingenious works of Roman engineering. Throughout the Empire, a vast network of roads, which stretched for approximately 80,000 km, connected the most remote locations to the capital (Rome), ensuring for centuries efficient administration of the provinces and rapid circulation of people and goods. After the fall of the Empire, and despite its progressive degradation, these roads continued to operate during the Middle Ages, with many sections still surviving to this day. In Conimbriga, a section of the road that ran from Olisipo (Lisbon) to Bracara Augusta (Braga), passing through Sellium (Tomar), Conimbriga and Aeminium (Coimbra), is still perfectly observable. Paved with large limestone slabs, the road was bordered by wide porticoed sidewalks, onto which residences and commercial establishments opened. It is therefore not surprising that several milestones were discovered in Conimbriga and its surroundings, large stone columns on which inscriptions were engraved evoking the names of the emperors who ordered the construction or repair of the road and the indication of distances in thousands of paces (in Latin "milia passum", from which we inherited the word "mile"). These include the names of the Emperors Caracalla (211-218 AD), Tacitus (275-276 AD), Constantius Chlorus (305-306 AD) and Galerius (305-311 AD), attesting to the importance of the city during the Late Roman Empire.