Caesar Tried To Fix Traffic And Failed #ancientrome #history

Added: 2026-04-30

[00:00:00]Rome, 45 BC.

[00:00:02]The greatest civilization on Earth, and it was completely [music] gridlocked.

[00:00:06]Julius Caesar, conqueror of Gaul, dictator of Rome, looked at the city's traffic and said, "Ban it." All wheeled vehicles banned from the city center during the day. This moved the traffic jams to nighttime. Romans were now kept awake by the sound of a thousand oxcarts rattling over cobblestones. [music] The streets were 4 and 1/2 m wide.

[00:00:27]That's two oxcarts passing, [music] barely. Delivery drivers, tradespeople, funeral processions, and senators in litters were all competing for the same space. Rome had roundabouts. Rome had road rage. Rome had people screaming in Latin.

[00:00:43]Pompeii had stepping stones across intersections, so pedestrians didn't walk through animal waste. They also had parking bollards. That's right. The Roman Empire had traffic bollards. They invented roads, then they immediately [music] needed traffic management.