Roman rule strengthened regional transportation, but the developed imperial road system visible in later Roman Palestine did not appear all at once.
Major routes served administration, military movement, trade, and communication. Some followed older corridors that had connected important settlements long before Roman control.
Roman road building developed over time. Care is needed not to project every road and milestone known from the second and third centuries back into the lifetime of Jesus.
Ordinary travelers could use major routes even when those routes had been developed primarily for government, military, or commercial purposes.
Paved road sections, milestones, bridges, engineering works, and surveys reveal the development of Roman transportation networks.
Roman administrative and geographical sources provide additional evidence for major routes and connections between cities.
The New Testament world existed within the larger transportation network of the Roman Empire, which later played an important role in the spread of Christianity.
The Gospel narratives occur early in the Roman period, when older local routes and developing Roman infrastructure existed together.
Roman authorities valued reliable routes, but the chronology of individual roads must be established rather than assumed.
Travelers probably moved easily between formal roads and older local routes depending on destination.
Dating the road network carefully gives us a more accurate picture of the landscape through which Jesus actually traveled.