Imperial Roads Across and Trade Routes Beyond the Roman Provinces of Judaea-Palaestina and Arabia: The State of Research

Abstract

The Imperial authorities of the Roman provinces of Judaea-Palaestina and Arabia gradually crisscrossed the region with an integrated network of about 2,500 miles of outstandingly engineered and constructed Roman roads. The network's longitudinal arteries extended northward to Syria and southward to Egypt and served the Imperial military and administrative traffic between the main provinces of the Roman East. The transversal roads continued eastward as overland desert tracks that crossed the Arabian peninsula. These tracks gradually evolved into international trade routes that served the multiethnic trade in Eastern commodities that were conveyed by a complex system of camel caravans. The chief artery among them extended from Southern Arabia northward along the eastern foothills of Asir and Hejaz to Petra and then to the port of Gaza. Another route stretched from Gerrha in a northwesterly direction until it reached the urban centres of the Decapolis, Bostra and Damascus, where it merged functionally with the Imperial road network of the Roman East.