<P> In case of an emergency in the condition of a particular road, men of influence and liberality were appointed, or voluntarily acted, as curatores or temporary commissioners to superintend the work of repair . The dignity attached to such a curatorship is attested by a passage of Cicero . Among those who performed this duty in connection with particular roads was Julius Caesar, who became curator (67 BC) of the Via Appia, and spent his own money liberally upon it . Certain persons appear also to have acted alone and taken responsibility for certain roads . </P> <P> In the country districts, as has been stated, the magistri pagorum had authority to maintain the viae vicinales . In Rome itself each householder was legally responsible for the repairs to that portion of the street which passed his own house . It was the duty of the aediles to enforce this responsibility . The portion of any street which passed a temple or public building was repaired by the aediles at the public expense . When a street passed between a public building or temple and a private house, the public treasury and the private owner shared the expense equally . No doubt, if only to secure uniformity, the personal liability of householders to execute repairs of the streets was commuted for a paving rate payable to the public authorities who were responsible from time to time . </P> <P> The governing structure was changed by Augustus . In the course of his reconstitution of the urban administration he created new offices in connection with the public works, streets, and aqueducts of Rome . He found the quattuorviri and duoviri forming part of the body of magistrates known as vigintisexviri . These he reduced from 26 to 20 members (vigintiviri), but retained the quattuorviri among them . The latter were certainly still in existence under Hadrian (117 - 138). Augustus abolished the duoviri, no doubt because the time had come to deal comprehensively with the superintendence of the roads which connected Rome with Italy and the provinces . Dio Cassius relates that Augustus personally accepted the post of superintendent . In this capacity he represented the paramount authority which belonged originally to the censors . Moreover, he appointed men of praetorian rank to be road - makers, assigning to each of them two lictors . He also made the office of curator of each of the great public roads a perpetual magistracy, instead of a special and temporary commission, as had been the case hitherto . </P> <P> In Augustus' capacity as supreme head of the public road system, he converted the temporary cura of each of the great roads into a permanent magistracy . The persons appointed under the new system were of senatorial or equestrian rank, according to the relative importance of the roads respectively assigned to them . It was the duty of each curator to issue contracts for the maintenance and repairs of his road, and to see that the contractor who undertook the work performed it faithfully, as to both quantity and quality . Moreover, he authorized the construction of sewers and removed obstructions to traffic, as the aediles did in Rome . It was in the character of an imperial curator, though probably of one armed with extraordinary powers, that Corbulo (as has been already mentioned) denounced the magistratus and mancipes of the Italian roads to Tiberius . He pursued them and their families with fines and imprisonment for 18 years (AD 21 - 39), and was rewarded with a consulship by Caligula, who was himself in the habit of condemning well - born citizens to work on the roads . It is noticeable that Claudius brought Corbulo to justice, and repaid the money which had been extorted from his victims . </P>

What effect did the system of roads have on the roman empire