Many of the major Roman roads were in Italy: the via Appia (Appian way) was the oldest one, from Rome to Apulia; the via Salaria, (Salt Road) from Rome to the Adriatic Sea (in the Marche region); the via Flaminia , from Rome to Rimini (Ariminum); the via Aemilia, from Rimini (Ariminum) to Placentia; the via Cassia, from Rome to Tuscany; the via Aurelia from Rome to France and the via Raetia, from Verona to Austria via the Brenner Pass.

In Gaul the via Agrippa was a network of radial roads from Lugdunum (Lyon) to Amiens and the North Sea; to Cologne (on the river Rhine); to Saintes on the Atlantic (just north of Bordeaux); at to Marseilles, on the Mediterranean. The via Aquitania connected the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, from Narbonne to Bordeaux. The via Domitia went from Narbonne to the Pyrenees Mountains. The via Belgica from Boulogne to Cologne crossed Belgium.

The major road in Spain was the via Augusta from the Pyrenees Mountains to Cadiz, near Gibraltar. It was 1,500 kilometres (938 miles) long.

The via Militaris or (via Diagonalis) went from Singidunum (Belgrade), to Constantinople (Istanbul) via Serdica (Sofia), Philippopolis (Plovdiv), Adrianopolis (Edirne). The via Egnatia went from Dyrrachium (Durrës) in Albania, on the Adriatic Sea to Constantinople via Thessalonica. The via Pontica started in Constantinople and followed the Black Sea coast up to Istros (Romania) near the mouth of the river Danube.

The major road in the Middle East was the via Trajana Nova which connected Jordan to the Red Sea. The major road in North Africa was from Sala Colonia in Morocco to Alexandria in Egypt via Carthage in Tunisia. In Egypt the major road was the via Hadriana from Antinopolis (near modern Asyut to Berenice on the Red Sea, close to Egypt's southern border.

In Britain there were the Akeman Street, Camlet Way, Dere Street, Ermine Street, Fen Causeway, Fosse Way, King Street, Peddars Way, Pye Road, Stane Street (Chichester), Stane Street (Colchester) Stanegate, Via Devana and Watling Street.