All Roads led to ...

 

The Roman mile consisted of one thousand paces (millia passuum). This distance was marked by milestones (milliaria), pillars typically inscribed with the distance (the number prefixed by MP), the places between which the road extended, who constructed the road, and the emperor to whom it was dedicated.

 

By the early fourth century, the Romans had built a road network of 53,000 miles throughout the empire.

 

The Milliarium Aureum, a column of gilded bronze (or marble clad in gilt bronze), was regarded as the point from which all the principle roads of Rome diverged. It stood in the Forum, probably between the Rostra and the Temple of Saturn, although its foundations have not been located.

 

In the Forum today, the circular marble plinth decorated with an anthemion (palmettes entwined with lilies) identified by most tourist guides as the Milliarium Aureum is not necessarily the original base, as it would seem too large for a milestone unless it were truly monumental.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rather, a circular concrete base found at the corner of the Rostra in 1959 may be a better attribution.