90 The Imperial Government
scenewhich expresses more powerfully the nature of the Roman Empire.
ForinrealityitisnotamatterofaRomanroadbutoftheRomanroad:that
is to say, that major routewhich ran from northern Italyand the Danube,
thenthroughtheBalkanstoByzantium,andacrossAnatoliatoSyriaandthe
Euphratesfrontier.^4
Fromthissectionoftheroadonecouldseethesnow-cappedpeaksofthe
Taurustothenorth,andtothesouththeCilicianplainandtheMediterra-
nean,andcouldimagineoneselftobeattheveryheartoftheEmpire.For
thisnarrowroad,amerethreemetresorsoinwidth,which—initspresent
form at least—would not have allowed more than two soldiers to march
abreast,wasinrealitythelinkwhichmaintainedtheunityoftheEmpireas
anintegratedsystem.ButtothinkoftheRomanEmpireasasystemofcom-
municationsextendedinspaceisnecessarilytothinkofthatimportantwork
ontheprovisioningofthearmyinkind—theannona militaris—publishedby
DenisvonBerchemin1937,whichhasstimulatedsomuchreflectionbyinte-
gratingourconceptionsoftheroadsystem,ofthemovementsoftroops,of
thedeliveryofsuppliesforthem,andoftaxation.^5
But,onthefollowingday,Ihadyetanotheroccasiontocontemplatethe
contributionmadebyDenisvonBerchemtoourconceptionoftheRoman
Empireasanorganisation,orasaspatialsystem.For,aftercrossingtheAma-
nus, we arrived in the plain of Antioch, and made our way to the coast.
AllthatIhadpreviouslycometounderstandofthenatureofthissmallre-
gion was owed to the magisterial article on the port of Seleucia in Pieria
publishedbyvanBerchemin1985.^6 Likepilgrims,sotospeak,wetraversed
the enormous cutting and tunnel there, carried out on the orders of Ves-
pasianandTitustodivertfromtheportastreamcomingdownfromMount
Coryphaeus(thesouth-westpointoftheAmanus).Furthermore,byclimb-
inguptotheacropolisoftheancientcity,wegainedamagnificentviewof
theport,nowfilledwithearth(andusedforgrowingtomatoes),butper-
fectlyvisiblefromabove.
Asisindicatedbythetitleofhisarticle,‘‘ThePortofSeleuciainPieriaand
letterthatthestretchofroadinquestion,althoughcertainlyasectionofthegreattrans-
Anatolianroute,shouldinitspresentstateberegardedasareconstructiondatingtothe
lateEmpire.
- OntheAnatoliansectionofthisroute,seeD.French,RomanRoadsandMilestonesof
Asia MinorI:ThePilgrim’sRoad(BritishInstituteofArchaeologyatAnkara,Monograph3;
BARInt.Ser.,105,1981). - D.vanBerchem,L’annone militaire dans l’Empire romain au 3esiècle(1937).
- D. van Berchem, ‘‘Le port de Séleucie de Piérie et l’infrastructure logistique des
guerresparthiques,’’Bonner Jahrbücher185(1985):47–87.