The Via Sacra (Sacred Road), the main road of the Roman Forum, runs from the Coliseum to the Capitoline hill. It is supposed that the road was built in 5 century B.C. Consequently, it is the oldest road of the Roman Empire.
Roads, aqueducts and sewage systems played a key role in the spread of Roman civilization. Twelve aqueducts supplied the ancient Rome with such amount of mountain water that over half a million of people could live comfortably in the city, with water supply system in every house. After the collapse of the Roman Empire there were no such thing in European cities for over a thousand years.
In the construction of the Via Sacra there were applied all the technologies the Romans then used when building roads all over the empire. At the time of the emperor Nero the Via Sacra was flanked with columns from the Arch of Tutus to the Capitol. It was on this road that all the triumphal processions of consuls and emperors returning from military campaigns with plentiful spoils took place.
