Abstract:

The intention in writing this article is to show how the network of roads and sea and fluvial routes communications at Roman times are being studied. This analysis starts with the reconstruction of the communication networks that have been studied up to now. This network consists of three different groups according to their physical environment. Firstly, all the known land roads, both main as well as secondary ones, have been collected. Throughout the preparation of this roadway network, its route has been adjusted, as much as possible, to the actual geographical facts, using topographic maps, orthophotomaps and digital land models. Also, the different previous studies, which had been published as well as the geographical references from significant archaeological elements have been a great help. After that, the possible Roman sailing fluvial routes were collected. This knowledge has been based, firstly according to the information given by the classical sources, and secondly, by the morphological, ethnographic and historical studies. Finally, the sea routes were collected taking into account the different categories of the harbours on the Catalan coast and its main sailing characteristics. After the acquisition of a vectorial model of the Roman communication network, the capacity of such communication was analysed. In this case it was decided to assess the Centrality Degree calculating the number of communication networks that were related to each of the different urban centres. This study is directly related to the graph theory, which was started by L. Euler far back in the eighteenth century (James 2002), though having a peculiarity which is the different assessment of the edges according to the means of transport which they belong to. Thus the degree of communication of the different nodes are not assessed only by the number of the routes related to them but it also depends on the capacity of communicating by sea and fluvial routs. The result of these studies show a clear view of the communication networks in this territory. Basically, they can be divided in three important groups, depending on their morphology. One first group would be those areas in which we find a main urban centre very well communicated and it is next to a territory which is as well communicated. A second group is formed by big urban centres with a high degree of centrality but with not such a well communicated territory. And finally, the third group would be those with rather a bad communication.