Scientists show: Istanbul and Ankara were more central than Rome in the empire's road network

Cities that out-ranked Rome in 'centrality'

An international team of researchers published in the journal Nature Communications the paper 'Network Science Reveals the Structure and Lasting Impact of the Roman Road System', in which they used network science methods to analyze about 299,000 km (roughly 186,000 miles) of roads of the Roman Empire. The authors assessed the importance of cities using three centrality measures: the number of road connections, accessibility of other points, and the role of a 'bridge' between different routes — as co-author of the study Matteo Vazzano, a lecturer in data science at Queen Mary University of London, explained. It turned out that a number of cities, including Byzantium (present-day Istanbul), Ancyra (Ankara), Antioch (Antakya in southern Turkey), and Corinth in Greece, surpassed the imperial capital Rome in importance as connecting nodes of the overland network.

Why Anatolia ended up at the center

Tom Brughmans, associate professor of classical archaeology at Aarhus University (Denmark), told Anadolu that Byzantium 'was indeed very central to the entire empire, connecting traffic between Europe and Asia': although Rome retained significance thanks to its Mediterranean position, Istanbul held a more central position specifically in overland communication. Ancyra, the capital of the Roman province of Galatia, according to Brughmans, thanks to its location in the heart of Anatolia was well suited for organizing movement from east to west across the peninsula and stood on one of the most central roads of the province — that is, it was strategically placed as a capital almost two millennia before becoming the capital of modern Turkey. He also noted that the famous saying 'all roads lead to Rome' arose in the Middle Ages, not in the Roman era, and was rather symbolic. Researcher Adam Pazout of the Autonomous University of Barcelona added that the central role of provincial capitals was mathematically confirmed, and that many roads, including routes in the Taurus Mountains in eastern Anatolia that climbed to roughly 2,000 meters, were built for military needs to connect border units. According to him, additional research is needed to determine whether the centrality of provincial capitals was a consequence of geography or deliberate Roman planning.

Ancient routes and the present day

The authors found that part of modern roads follows routes laid out in Roman times, especially where ancient settlements remained major population centers. Brughmans noted that after the industrial revolution and the advent of motor transport, transport networks changed greatly, but a noticeable continuity between ancient and modern routes persists. The team also created an open high-resolution digital map, Itiner-e, covering the same ~299,000 km of roads and settlements, opening up possibilities for research in archaeology, history, economic geography, and transport. Hamdi Şahin, professor of history at Istanbul University, who provided data on the mountainous Cilicia in southern Turkey, emphasized the role of archaeological evidence — milestone stones, historical texts, and surviving paved roads — and noted that in Turkey, 400 to 500 new inscriptions are found annually, including evidence of ancient roads.