MILIARIUM

The Roman milestone, a stone column, such as were set up at intervals of 1,000 (mille) passus = 5,000 Roman feet on the military roads, partly during the last years of the Republic, and regularly since Augustus. They gave in numbers, usually preceded by M.P. (milia passuum), the distance from the place from which the measurement was made, besides its name and that of the person who had constructed the road or erected the milestone, and of the emperor in whose reign the road had been made. A great number of these milestones, in every part of the Roman empire, has been preserved, and also the base of the central column of gilt bronze (miliarium aureum) erected by Augustus in the Forum near the temple of Saturn; it was regarded as the centre of the empire. (SeePlan of Fora, under FORUM.)