"All roads lead to Rome” may be a proverb, but it's true: European roads still follow the networks of the Roman empire. Over the 2,000 years since they were built, they have been walked by crusaders, pilgrims, liberators, dictators, tourists, writers, refugees, and artists. Historian Catherine Fletcher reveals how these roads have functioned as channels of trade and travel and routes for conquest and creativity, transforming the cultures of a vast panoply of people across Europe.
Fletcher tells the stories of her travels from Scotland to Cádiz to Istanbul and Rome, sharing histories of nations and empires that have risen and fallen. Along the way, encounter spies, bandits, scheming innkeepers, a Byzantine noblewoman on the run, young aristocrats on their Grand Tour, a conquering Napoleon, John Keats, the Shelleys, Frederick Douglass, and Mussolini on his motorbike.
Her new book, The Roads to Rome: A History of Imperial Expansion (Simon & Schuster), is available for purchase.
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