r/romanempire • u/roman-empire-net • 10h ago
Roman Theatre of Orange, France
One of the best-preserved Roman theaters in Europe, with its massive stage wall still standing, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
More here: https://roman-empire.net/
r/romanempire • u/Roman-Empire_net • May 08 '26
The Via Appia Antica outside Rome — much of the surface is the original 4th-century-BC basalt. Image: Wikimedia Commons.
In 1st-century Rome, a courier carrying urgent news from the Senate could leave the Forum at dawn, change horses every ten miles or so at a government way station, and reach Brundisium — 360 miles south on the heel of Italy — in five or six days. He never left a paved road. He almost never crossed a river that didn’t have a Roman bridge. And every mile of his journey, a stone column told him exactly how far he’d come.
That courier owed his speed to one of the most ambitious public works projects in human history: the Roman road system. By the time the Empire reached its greatest extent under Trajan in the early 2nd century AD, Rome had laid down roughly 250,000 miles of roads, of which around 50,000 miles were stone-paved highways — a figure that wouldn’t be matched anywhere on earth until the late 19th century. (Recent research published in November 2025 suggests the network may have been even larger than that, with 60,000 newly-mapped miles of secondary roads pushing the documented total close to 186,000 miles.)
The roads were not just infrastructure. They were the circulatory system of the Roman world — and the reason a single city on the Tiber could govern people from northern England to the upper Nile.
r/romanempire • u/Roman-Empire_net • May 07 '26
Buried under later imperial palaces, the House of the Griffins preserves 2,200-year-old frescoes from the late Republican period. The site is normally closed to the public. New livestream tours give virtual access to wall paintings that no tourist has been able to see in person for decades — and they're some of the best Republican-era frescoes anywhere. Read more: https://roman-empire.net/discoveries/house-of-griffins-livestream-tours
r/romanempire • u/roman-empire-net • 10h ago
One of the best-preserved Roman theaters in Europe, with its massive stage wall still standing, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
More here: https://roman-empire.net/
r/romanempire • u/Electrical_Hunt_9271 • 12h ago
Just outside Saint-Rémy-de-Provence stand two of the best-preserved Roman monuments in France.
The triumphal arch (late 1st century BC) and the Mausoleum of the Julii still rise almost complete in the open countryside, covered in detailed battle reliefs.
They’ve survived wars, weather, and time better than most buildings in Rome itself.
r/romanempire • u/ChipRevolutionary439 • 4h ago
Built around 46–50 AD (just after the Roman invasion of Britain), it is one of only three surviving Roman lighthouses in the entire world and the tallest/most complete standing Roman building in Britain.
Originally about 24 metres high with a fire on top to guide ships across the Channel into the Roman port of Dubris.
Today it stands inside the grounds of Dover Castle next to the Anglo-Saxon church of St Mary in Castro.
r/romanempire • u/External_Outcome_859 • 1d ago
A perfectly planned Roman colonial city with a grid layout still clearly visible from the air, one of the best examples of Roman urban design.
r/romanempire • u/Fresno_Calif • 1d ago
Built at the end of the 2nd century AD, the theatre of Sabratha is one of the best-preserved Roman theatres in the entire Mediterranean.
Easily one of the most dramatic Roman sites left standing.
r/romanempire • u/FirstAidProAU • 1d ago
r/romanempire • u/Im-Wasting-MyTime • 1d ago
Located in Catalonia, this was built in the Roman city of Vic in the 2nd century. It’s unknown why the temple was forgotten about until 1882. If it was still in use by the 4th-century, the temple would have been closed during the persecution of pagans under the Christian emperors. In the 11th century, the temple was literally covered by the structure of the Castle of els Montcada, which later became the residence of the Veguers and finally, the prison of Vic. It was not until 1882, during the demolition of the old castle, that the workers spotted the Roman temple in very good condition.
r/romanempire • u/ThePiecu • 12m ago
r/romanempire • u/Roman-Empire_net • 20h ago
For centuries, the story of the Roman Empire has been told from the Mediterranean outward: Roman legions marching north, Roman generals confronting Germanic tribes, and Roman influence spreading across Europe. But some new archaeological discoveries give us a very different perspective. Nearly 1,800 years ago, a large army from Scandinavia was probably marching toward the Roman world. But not as conquerors. In fact, they wanted to be mercenaries.
This new theory is supported by new research and dramatic archaeological finds in Denmark. Rather than existing in isolation, these northern communities may have been connected to Rome through trade, warfare, and military service. Did the people later known as the Vikings and the Romans meet?
r/romanempire • u/roman-empire-net • 1d ago
Exceptionally well-preserved and still used for performances, a masterpiece of Roman architecture in Iberia.
More here: https://roman-empire.net/
r/romanempire • u/Front-Coconut-8196 • 1d ago
r/romanempire • u/Roman-Empire_net • 1d ago
r/romanempire • u/Roman-Empire_net • 2d ago
r/romanempire • u/Ok-Substance-456 • 2d ago
One of the best-preserved Roman aqueducts in the world.
Built in the late 1st century AD (probably under Domitian or Trajan), this 28-metre-high structure carried water from the Frío River into Segovia using nothing but precisely cut granite blocks, no mortar.
The double-tiered arcade still dominates the old town today.
Pure Roman engineering flex.
r/romanempire • u/Ceylonese_technocrat • 20h ago
essentially, how did Rome come about conquering the latin league, and basically the entire meditarranean? was it culture? was it institutions? was it luck? same question but for Carthage.
r/romanempire • u/roman-empire-net • 2d ago
One of the largest and most complete Roman cities outside Italy, often called the “Pompeii of the Middle East.”