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all roads lead to Rome

 
Proverbs: All roads lead to Rome

Cf. medieval L. mille vie ducunt hominem per secula Romam, a thousand roads lead man for ever towards Rome. [c 1391 Chaucer Astrolabe Prologue l. 40] Right as diverse pathes leden diverse folk the righte way to Rome.

All roads alike conduct to Rome.
[1806 R. Thomson tr. La Fontaine's Fables IV. xii. xxiv.]
You know all roads lead to Rome, and they say that Oxford is half-way to Rome.
[1872 W. Black Strange Adventures of Phaeton vi.]
All roads lead to Rome: and even animal individuality throws a ray on human problems.
[1912 J. S. Huxley Individual in Animal Kingdom vi.]
All roads, of course, led to Rome: an expression of Rome's control over the empire's landscape and populace.
[2002 Spectator 16 Feb. 21]

Related to: beginnings and endings; ways and means

Bibliography of major proverb collections and works cited from modern editions is available here.

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Idioms: all roads lead to Rome
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Many different methods will produce the same result. For example, So long as you meet the deadline, I don't care how much help you get--all roads lead to Rome. Based on the fact that the Roman Empire's excellent road system radiated from the capital like the spokes of a wheel, this metaphor was already being used in the 1100s.


 
 

 

Copyrights:

Proverbs. The Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs. Copyright © 1982, 1992, 1998, 2003, 2004 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Idioms. The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more