Milliarium Aureum - Roma, Italy - Wikipedia Entries on Waymarking.com

The Milliarium Aureum (Italian: Miliario Aureo), also known by the translation Golden Milestone, was a monument, probably of marble or gilded bronze, erected by the Emperor Caesar Augustus near the Temple of Saturn in the central Forum of Ancient Rome. All roads were considered to begin at this monument and all distances in the Roman Empire were measured relative to it. On it perhaps were listed all the major cities in the empire and distances to them, though the monument's precise location and inscription remain matters of debate among historians.

According to Philip Schaff, the phrase "all roads lead to Rome" is a reference to the Milliarium Aureum, the specific point to which all roads were said to lead. A marble structure speculated to be the base of the milestone is present in the Roman Forum.

Augustus, as curator viarum, erected the monument in 20 BC. It probably received the name Milliarium Aureum soon after its inauguration. It symbolized the starting point of the Roman road system to the rest of Italy and to all the imperial possessions.

The Milliarium Aureum seems to have been a marble column sheathed in gilded bronze; according to C. Hülsen, a huge marble cylinder was found in 1835 near the Temple of Saturn and it still had bronze hooks. The whole monument likely had the standard form of a Roman milestone. Some scholars think that the Milliarium Aureum was made entirely of gilded bronze, while others believe only the inscribed letters were gilded bronze. Probable dimensions for the structure include a height of 3.7 metres (12 ft), and a diameter of 1.15 metres (3.8 ft) (column only) or 3 metres (9.8 ft) if including the alleged base (i.e. the carved marble fragments labeled "Milliarium Aureum" in the Roman Forum).

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