An ongoing discussion concerning roman transportation is on the tracks in the narrow streets of Pompeii. What type of vehicle(s) is able to drive around inside the ancient city? When walking around in Pompeii looking at the roads and crossroads (see photo below) the question about wagon-transportation, not least about 4-wheelers, pops into mind, and Roads crossing in Pompeii, Italythere-next another much discussed term: the pivoting front-axle!

The discussion of the pivoting front-axle is an old discussion on roman wagon technology, where the “ancient” argument is concentrating on a four-wheeled wagon which failed the ability to take a turn and therefore only moved because of the suppleness in the wooden construction. As a contrast to this view the idea of the pivoting front-axle was introduced with the finds of some roman-age wooden parts, which gave the wagon-construction the ability to turn on a single bolt, which again meant the wagon top was no longer placed directly on the front axle. A possible reconstruction of the pivoting front-axle is seen in the wagon in Cologne, mentioned in previous posts, but it is still to be found in the roman iconographic material.

The question is, though: Is it actually possible to drive a four-wheeled wagon round in a city like Pompeii, pivoting front-axle or not?

This is not an easy question to answer and therefore, instead of trying to do so, I will now turn the attention towards the roman legal question of having vehicles inside the ancient city: what kinds of vehicles were actually allowed in the city and when? Maybe only two-wheeled carts where allowed in the city, and preferably after sunset, as in the case of some medieval cities, and the four-wheeled wagon was more of a country-side vehicle concerned with long-distance cargo.

But where does this bring us in our search for wagon-transport inside ancient Pompeii? The tracks in the paving are clearly visible today, but not all roads bear marks of wagon-usage. Therefore it could be reasonable to assume that the transporting of goods around an ancient city like Pompeii could have been done by small two-wheeled carts concentrating their routes on the bigger more centrally placed in and outgoing roads, and therefor they did not have to make a turn inside the city.Tracks turning right? Pompeii, Italy

All I know is the fact that I haven’t come across a road-cross inside Pompeii or any other ancient city with a “safe-to-say” mark of wagons taking some kind of turn - almost all marks I have seen are running straight ahead. This uncertainty is due to a photo of mine showing what just might happen to be a “turn-track” (see photo right), but it is unfortunately not safe to conclude anything from this photo alone.

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