By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout
Even before Roman soldiers started building and then marching on the roads of the empire, expanding the imperial trade across all the outposts, there were well-worn trading paths that led to Rome. Etruscans, who preceded the Romans on the Italian peninsula, had been trading extensively with northern lands. Many of the traders were Arab and Jewish merchants who would bring furs, linen, resins, and even live wild animals all the way from the northern and eastern edges of Europe toward the Mediterranean towns.
