Irina A. Gvozdeva
The Rural Roads as the Structural Element of the Roman Organization of Land Exploitation,
in: Ekonomicheskaja istorija. Ezhegodnik (Economic Hystory. Yearbook). 2002, Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2003, p.533-560.

Summary
The Romans created a special rural infrastructure in Italy and in the provinces, the main element of which were the roads. When the Romans began to build roads they have been guided by the study of space organization, which was rooted in Etruscan cosmogony. According to it axes which divided a closed space of heavenly or terrestrial temple made the division of parts of the world. In practice of roman organization of land exploitation those axes became the roads built in coordinates. The divisor-limit bounds were built parallel to the main axes. They were widespread in the countryside of the Roman state as the most convenient roads. As a matter of fact the roman organization of land exploitation became the measurement (limitatio) as those roads crossed at right angles and made the "lattice of measuring" resembling a chess-board by scheme. Augustus - the founder of the Roman Empire - gave a legislative basic to the width, sort of bounds and types of measure signs. The road-limits made firm prosperity of the whole Mediterranean Region.

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