There was once a monument in Rome called Milliarium Aureum: the Golden Milestone. The Emperor Augustus erected it in the Forum in about 20 B.C. All distances in Ancient Rome were said to be marked from (or to) that spot. There’s still a round remnant of it in the Roman Forum.
It gave rise to the phrase, “All roads lead to Rome,” for the very good reason that they did. The 12th-century poet-theologian Alain de Lille was the first to use the phrase, as Mille viae ducunt homines per saecula Romam: Qui dominum toto quaerere corde volunt (“A thousand roads lead forever to Rome, the men who desire to seek the Lord with all their heart.”). Chaucer (A Treatise on the Astrolabe in 1391) was the first to recast de Lille’s proverb into English as “Right as diverse pathes leden diverse folk the righte way to Rome.”
And, my friends, this was never about geography.
The Milliarium Aureum. Dr. Royal tells me modern Romans call it il ombelico, the ‘navel.’Jump ahead to the 16th and 17th centuries (and later), and artists found their many ways to the Eternal City along earthly roads to discover ways of expressing the glory of
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