The Roman roads were essential for the growth of the Roman empire, by enabling the Romans to move armies. A proverb says that "all roads lead to Rome." At its peak, the Roman road system spanned 52,819 miles (85,004 km) and contained about 372 links.
The Romans, for military, commercial and political reasons, became adept at constructing roads, which they called viae (plural of the singular term via). The word is related to the English way and weigh, as in 'to weigh anchor'. The Indo-European root, *wegh-, with a palatal g, becomes *wegh- with a guttural g in the centum languages, including Latin. It means "to go" with the sense of transporting in a vehicle. Viae were always intended primarily as carriage roads, the means of carrying material from one location to another.
These long highways were very important in maintaining both the stability and expansion of the empire. The legions made good time on them, and some are still used millennia later. In late Antiquity these roads played an important part in Roman military reverses by offering avenues of invasion to the barbarians.
Most Roman roads were named after the censor who ordered their construction or reconstruction. The same person often served afterward as consul, but the road name is dated to his term as censor. If the road was older than the office of censor or was of unknown origin, it took the name of its destination or of the region through which it mainly passed. A road was renamed if the censor ordered major work on it, such as paving, repaving or rerouting.