“The Roman road, which lasted hundreds of years, will undoubtedly have been superior to whatever is built today. Rome was so cool.”
They were great civil engineers, but to consider their roads superior to today’s roads is a bit of a stretch. They didn’t carry anything like the sort of loads ours have to. Of course, we could build better roads for a lower price if we had slave labor too.
I remember a story of an Israeli Major during the 73 war ( I think, but am uncertain), who in civilian life had been a PhD student in Ancient History, was involved in staff planning of the Israeli counteroffensive plans towards Egypt.
They were facing logistical problems with their convoys and armored maneuvers being stuck in silt and soft sand in the area of advance they sought. He had recalled from his studies in Ancient History than millenia before, the ROmans had built a road in that area, but no modern day records of its location existed. It had long been abandoned. he journeyed to the area and found the road, no longer on the maps, and this one one of their major routes used to advance so quickly in their counterattack.
Their roads withstood 2 millenia of neglect and still supported armor convoys in battlefield conditions. I guess one could say the Romans built some pretty good roads.