In the Roman Empire, a mansio (from the Latin word mansus, the perfect passive participle of manere "to remain" or "to stay") was an official stopping place on a Roman road, or via, maintained by the central government for the use of officials and those on official business whilst travelling. [1]
The roads which traversed the Ancient World were later surveyed, developed and carefully maintained by the Romans, featuring purpose-built rest stops at regular intervals, known as castra . Probably originally established as simple places of military encampment, in process of time they included barracks and magazines of provisions ( horrea ) for the troops. Over time the need arose for a more sophisticated form of shelter for travelling dignitaries and officials. The Latin term mansio is derived from manere, signifying to pass the night at a place while travelling (the word is likely to be the source of the English word mansion, though their uses are entirely different). [1] These substantial structures, normally in the form of a villa, were dedicated to the travellers' rest and refreshment. Guests were expected to provide a passport to identify themselves. In many cases infrastructure to sustain them sprang up around the mansio, but also the villas of provincial officials; forts and ultimately even cities.[ citation needed ] Ox-drawn carts could travel about 30 km per day; pedestrians a little farther, so each mansio was about 25 to 30 km from the next. [1] At each mansio cisiarii kept gigs for hire and for conveying government dispatches (Cisium; Essedum). The Itinerarium Burdigalense , which is a road book drawn up in 333, mentions in order the mansiones from Bordeaux to Jerusalem with the intervening mutationes, and other, more considerable places, which are called either civitates , vici , or castella. The number of leagues or of miles between one place and another is also set down. [2]
New mansio locations continue to be discovered and yield archaeological elements, e.g. in July 2024 a ring with the inscription "Roma" was discovered at a mansio near Coriglia close to Orvieto. [3]
The mansio was under the superintendence of an officer called "mansionarius". [2] As the bishops assumed control in the Christian West during the fifth and sixth centuries, the office of mansionarius developed new connotations. Mansionarius is inserted as a synonym of prosmonarius/paramonarius in canon 2 of the Fourth Ecumenical Council (451). [4]
Non-official travellers needed refreshment too, and different grades of facilities were available, often at the same locations as the mansiones.
A private system of cauponae were placed near the mansiones. They performed the same functions but were somewhat disreputable, as they were frequented by thieves and prostitutes. Graffiti decorate the walls of the few whose ruins have been found.
Genteel travellers needed something better than cauponae. In the early days of the viae, when little unofficial travel existed, houses placed near the road were required by law to offer hospitality on demand. Frequented houses no doubt became the first tabernae (Latin word " taberna " ("shed" or "hut"; from tabula, meaning "board"), which were hostels, rather than the "taverns" we know today. A tabernaculum or small taberna was a portable place of worship for the Hebrews, thus producing the word tabernacle.
As Rome grew, so did its tabernae, becoming more luxurious and acquiring good or bad reputations as the case may be. One of the best hostels was the Tabernae Caediciae at Sinuessa on the Via Appia . It had a large storage room containing barrels of wine, cheese and ham. Many cities of today grew up around a taberna complex, such as Rheinzabern in the Rhineland, and Saverne in Alsace.
A third system of way stations serviced vehicles and animals: the mutationes ("changing stations") (ἀλλαγαὶ). In these complexes, the driver could purchase the services of wheelwrights, cartwrights, and equarii medici, or veterinarians. Using these stations in chariot relays, the emperor Tiberius hastened 200 miles in 24 hours to join his brother, Drusus Germanicus, [8] [9] who was dying of gangrene as a result of a fall from a horse.
Stationes are mostly known though the Antonine Itinerary and may be similar to mansiones.
Roman roads were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. They provided efficient means for the overland movement of armies, officials, civilians, inland carriage of official communications, and trade goods. Roman roads were of several kinds, ranging from small local roads to broad, long-distance highways built to connect cities, major towns and military bases. These major roads were often stone-paved and metaled, cambered for drainage, and were flanked by footpaths, bridleways and drainage ditches. They were laid along accurately surveyed courses, and some were cut through hills or conducted over rivers and ravines on bridgework. Sections could be supported over marshy ground on rafted or piled foundations.
Tre Taverne was a place on the ancient Appian Way, about 50 km from Rome, designed for the reception of travellers, as the name indicates.
The Roman road from Silchester to Bath connected Calleva Atrebatum (Silchester) with Aquae Sulis (Bath) via Spinae (Speen), Cunetio and Verlucio. The road was a significant route for east–west travel and military logistics in south-east England during the 1st to 5th centuries.
The Via Egnatia was a road constructed by the Romans in the 2nd century BC. It crossed Illyricum, Macedonia, and Thracia, running through territory that is now part of modern Albania, North Macedonia, Greece, and European Turkey as a continuation of the Via Appia.
Godmanchester is a town and civil parish in the Huntingdonshire district of Cambridgeshire, England. It is separated from Huntingdon, 1 mile (1.6 km) to the north, by the valley of the River Great Ouse. Being on the Roman road network, the town has a long history. It has a waterside location, surrounded by open countryside of high value for its biodiversity but it remains highly accessible, with a railway line to London, the A1 road and M11/A14 which run nearby.
Tripontium was a town in Roman Britain. It lay on the Roman road later called Watling Street at a site now chiefly within the civil parish of Churchover in the English county of Warwickshire and partly in Leicestershire, some 3.4 miles north-east of Rugby and 3.1 miles south of Lutterworth.
Roman roads in Britannia were initially designed for military use, created by the Roman army during the nearly four centuries (AD 43–410) that Britannia was a province of the Roman Empire.
A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word mansio "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb manere "to dwell". The English word manse originally defined a property large enough for the parish priest to maintain himself, but a mansion is no longer self-sustaining in this way. Manor comes from the same root—territorial holdings granted to a lord who would "remain" there. Following the fall of Rome, the practice of building unfortified villas ceased. Today, the oldest inhabited mansions around the world usually began their existence as fortified houses in the Middle Ages. As social conditions slowly changed and stabilised fortifications were able to be reduced, and over the centuries gave way to comfort. It became fashionable and possible for homes to be beautiful rather than grim and forbidding allowing for the development of the modern mansion.
Letocetum is the ancient remains of a Roman settlement. It was an important military staging post and posting station near the junction of Watling Street, the Roman military road to north Wales, and Icknield Street. The site is now within the parish of Wall, Staffordshire, England. It is owned and run by the National Trust, under the name Letocetum Roman Baths Site & Museum. The site is in the guardianship of English Heritage as Wall Roman Site.
Mildenhall is a village and civil parish in the Kennet Valley in Wiltshire, England, immediately east of the market town of Marlborough. The village is about 1.5 miles (2 km) east of the centre of Marlborough, on the minor road which follows the River Kennet towards Ramsbury. The parish also contains the hamlets of Poulton and Stitchcombe. The name has often been written as Minal, and this is continued in the present-day pronunciation.
Stane Street is the modern name of the 91 km-long (57 mi) Roman road in southern England that linked Londinium (London) to Noviomagus Reginorum (Chichester). The exact date of construction is uncertain; however, on the basis of archaeological artefacts discovered along the route, it was in use by 70 AD and may have been built in the first decade of the Roman occupation of Britain.
Cunetio was a large walled town in a valley of the River Kennet in modern-day Wiltshire, England. The settlement was occupied from the 2nd century AD by Romano-British people until the post-Roman period, and was abandoned in the early 5th century. Its site is near the village of Mildenhall, about 1+1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) east of the market town of Marlborough.
A taberna was a type of shop or stall in Ancient Rome. Originally meaning a single-room shop for the sale of goods and services, tabernae were often incorporated into domestic dwellings on the ground level flanking the fauces, the main entrance to a home, but with one side open to the street. As the Roman Empire became more prosperous, tabernae were established within great indoor markets and were often covered by a barrel vault. Each taberna within a market had a window above it to let light into a wooden attic for storage and had a wide doorway. A famous example of such an indoor market is the Markets of Trajan in Rome, built in the early 2nd century by Apollodorus of Damascus.
Durocornovium was a Roman town in Britain, situated on the Roman road between Corinium Dobunnorum (Cirencester) and Calleva Atrebatum (Silchester). In many ways Durocornovium was a typical small Roman town.
Littlecote Roman Villa is an extensive and exceptional Roman villa, with associated religious complex, at Littlecote Park just over a mile west of Hungerford, Berkshire. It has been excavated and is on display to the public in the grounds of the estate.
Slinfold is a village and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England.
A roadhouse or stopping house (Canada) is a small mixed-use premises typically built on or near a major road in a sparsely populated area or an isolated desert region that serves passing travellers, providing food, drinks, accommodation, fuel, and parking spaces to the guests and their vehicles. The premises generally consist of just a single dwelling, permanently occupied by a nuclear family, usually between two and five family members.
Sulloniacis or Sulloniacae was a mansio on the Roman road known as Watling Street in Roman Britain. Its existence is known from only one entry in the Antonine Itinerary, a listing of routes and facilities for the cursus publicus, the official courier service of the Roman Empire. Sulloniacis, which is recorded in Iter II for the route that ran between Portus Ritupis and Deva Victrix, was nine Roman miles from Verulamium and 12 from Londinium (London). Roman remains found at Brockley Hill near Edgware in the London Borough of Barnet have been identified as those of Sulloniacis.
Viciana or Station Viciano was a Roman road station of unclear location, somewhere in Kosovo field.
An ancient Roman statio was a stopping place on a Roman road for travellers looking for shelter for the night and a change of horses. The name of the statio was sometimes a town or city with suitable accommodation, such as inns, and sometimes a dedicated building between larger settlements. They often included thermal baths in the facilities.
