Roman roads in Tunisia
Ancient Africa Proconsularis was the richest province in the western empire after Italy, and Tunisia's density of Roman road reflects that. Roads radiated from Carthage, refounded as a Roman colony under Caesar in 44 BC and settled by Augustus, to Ammaedara, Thysdrus and the olive country of the Sahel. The bones of the network are still visible from the air as straight lines across the steppe.
What to see
The amphitheatre at El Djem, ancient Thysdrus, is the clearest measure of what the road network carried. Built in the third century to hold perhaps 35,000 people in a town that was never large, it was paid for by the olive oil that moved out along these roads to Rome. Dougga, further inland, preserves an entire small Roman city on its hillside.
- Mapped segments
- 560
- Surveyed length
- 10,330 km
Measured from the Itiner-e survey. Segments by certainty of line: conjectured 516, certain 35, hypothetical 9. A conjectured line is one inferred from evidence either side of it, not a road whose existence is doubted.
What kind of roads
- Secondary Road 454 segments
- Main Road 106 segments