of his choice to travel overland between Troezen in the Pelo-
ponnese and Athens (a relatively short journey). In historical
times, when cargoes of any value were transported overland
they tended to go in well-armed caravans, following river val-
leys. But there were few cargoes that needed carrying long dis-
tances by land, and so mule- or ox-drawn wagons were mainly
limited to local transport, bearing produce from the country-
side to urban markets or cargoes from harbors into cities. Th e
chariot appears in poetry as a vehicle of war but was not used,
in war or peace, to any signifi cant extent by the Greeks during
the historical period. Most warfare among the ancient Greeks
was between neighbors and was dominated by soldiers on foot,
who marched to their battles and back home again.
Trade was by sea, with bulky cargoes (most oft en grain)
or valuable cargoes (luxury goods such as particular vintages
of wine or fi ne pottery or textiles) moving from one end of
the Mediterranean to the other and beyond. Ancient Greek
trade goods have been found in England and Sweden, per-
haps brought that far north by merchants looking for tin, ametal alloyed with copper to make bronze. (Copper was com-
mon in the Greek world, but tin was not.)
Ironically, given the relative unimportance of land trans-
port, there were occasions when ancient travelers preferred to
carry their ships overland rather than sail them on the sea.
Ships traveling between east and west in the Mediterranean
could choose to round the southern end of the Peloponnese,
risking bad weather from the open sea to the south, or to
cross the Isthmus of Corinth by land. Th e Corinthians had
constructed a dragway across the isthmus and would (for a
fee) carry merchant ships across that narrow strip of land on
rollers (today there is a canal).ROME
BY KIRK H. BEETZ
Th e earliest remains archaeologists have found at the city of
Rome are graves dating from the 800s b.c.e., but Roman tra-
dition held that the city was founded in 753 b.c.e. By this time
many of the ancient world’s most important innovations in
transportation had already been made, primarily in the Near
East, and much of this Near Eastern technology had found
its way into Italy. At the same time, Celts in Europe were
making marvelous carts and chariots, experimenting and in-
novating in their design and uses. Still, even though the Ro-
mans acquired all the advanced transportation technology,
the favored Roman method for hauling even heavy goods
was humans trudging along under their burdens. Slaves were
abundant, and it was easier to load them up with whatever
needed to be transported, whether it was bricks or wheat,
than to invest money in beasts of burden and their mainte-
nance. Even the Roman army was apt to carry what it needed
on foot. Most of its soldiers were farmers used to long hours
on their feet, and the army tended to favor infantry over cav-
alry. Walking remained the most common mode of transport
for the poor throughout the history of ancient Rome
Transporting goods by water was usually much less ex-
pensive than hauling them over land. In the time of Diocletian
(r. 284–305 c.e.), it was less expensive to transport goods across
the Mediterranean from Spain to Syria than to transport them
over 75 miles of land. But when it came to personal travel, Ro-
mans preferred to go overland rather than travel by ship. Many
did travel by ship, especially if they were in a hurry, but dry
land seemed more secure to most Romans. Th ey were also avid
tourists who liked to see the sights wherever they went.
Oxen were the primary beasts of burden for pulling carts.
For small farmers, oxen and a cart were essential for bringing
produce to markets in towns or cities. Th e carts were heavy
aff airs, made of thick planks of wood with either two or four
solid wheels. On most big Roman carts the axles were fi xed to
the carriage body, making turns very diffi cult. It required the
strength of oxen to maneuver them. When taking produce to
a city, the farmer walked beside the oxen rather than riding
on the cart. He traveled at night, because carts carrying farm
products were forbidden to be in cities during the day.1118 transportation: RomeWhen Xerxes, the great king of Persia, was planning to
invade Greece in the early decades of the fi fth century
B.C.E., he faced a number of challenges of transport.
His army numbered at least 100,000—the numbers
are not known precisely, and ancient sources are no-
toriously unreliable in these matters—and it was sup-
ported by a vast naval fl eet. Xerxes had to get his army
across the Hellespont, the channel of water connect-
ing the Black Sea with the Aegean. He also had to get
his fl eet safely along the coast of Thrace, the territory
to the north of the Aegean, and particularly past the
Chersonese, an area of peninsulas extending into the
sea, regularly wracked by storms.
Xerxes’ famous solution was to “turn sea into land
and land into sea,” as the Greek historian Herodotus
reports. He built a bridge over the Hellespont, a line
of barges secured by cables woven from papyrus. His
fi rst attempt succumbed to the currents of the Hel-
lespont, whereupon he had his servants fl og the body
of water with whips. His second attempt succeeded.
To avoid the storms around the capes of the Cher-
sonese, he had his engineers dig a canal across the
promontory of Mount Athos (today the site of a fa-
mous monastery), allowing his fl eet to make the Thra-
cian crossing without entering the Aegean proper. To
Herodotus and evidently many of the Greeks, these
feats of engineering represented excessive pride, an
affront to the gods, and Xerxes’ eventual defeat, on
sea and on land, seemed only fi tting.TURNING SEA INTO LAND AND
LAND INTO SEA0895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i1118 1118 10/10/07 2:31:09 PM