258 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Captives were frequently employed on the road. After tlie destruc- 

 tion of Jerusalem by Titus, the spectacle of Jewish chain gangs at 

 work on the highways was a common sight all over the empire, and 

 the spectacle again became familiar to Roman travelers sixty-five 

 years later, after the unsuccessful rebellion of Bar-Chochebas, when 

 the Romans, after almost incredible butcheries, determined to de- 

 populate Judea as the best way of solving the question in that prov- 

 ince. 



Although the prime object of the roads was military, the em- 

 perors availed themselves of these admirable highways to obtain 

 quick intelligence from all parts of their extensive dominions. All 

 roads were divided by mile posts, and at every fifth mile on the Roman 

 highway stood a posthouse. Forty horses were always in readiness 

 at each station, and with rapid changes it was possible for an imperial 

 messenger to travel one hundred miles a day, or even more. During 

 the reign of Theodosius a messenger bearing news of a dangerous 

 revolt rode post from Antioch to Constantinople, leaving the former 

 city at night and arriving at Constantinople on the sixth day at noon, 

 thus traveling seven hundred and twenty-five Roman or six hun- 

 dred and sixty-five of our miles in five days and a half. Sometimes 

 the use of the emperor's posts was granted to ministers, and to 

 favorites whom the emperors delighted to honor. It was, however, 

 a rare favor. Pliny sent his wife on post horse from Rome to the 

 country, and, although a minister, came near having trouble with the 

 emperor in consequence of doing so, for the post horses were as a rule 

 employed only on government business. It was one of these posts 

 that brought Augustus the news of the loss of Varus and his legions; 

 it was a post that brought ISTero the tidings of Galba's insurrection. 



Crude as we should deem them, the Roman roads were strongly 

 built, safe, and permanent, and even their ruins are among the great- 

 est remaining wonders of that remarkable people. 



Prof. W. McK. Cattell, writing of anthropology at Columbia Univer- 

 sity, finds it natural that that branch of research should be relatively late 

 in coming to the front, because science must fii'st cover the fields where 

 the material is most stable and most accessible to experiment. "Thus, 

 during the first half of the present century the most important advances 

 were made by the physical sciences ; then biology made the greatest prog- 

 ress ; now, at the end of the century, it seems likely that the sciences con- 

 cerned with man will become leading." This science has not been fostered 

 by the universities, but has developed till it has compelled recognition. It 

 is cultivated in the German universities, is recog-nized by a considerable 

 school in Paris, and in chairs of criminal anthropology in Italy, and 

 courses in it have been established in the Universities of Chicago and Penn- 

 sylvania and at Columbia. 



