45 BC.
“The following regulation applies to streets, whether present or future, within the continuous built-up area of the City of Rome. From next January 1 onwards, no waggon is to be led or driven within this area during the daytime, that is to say after sunrise or before the tenth hour of the day – with the exception that this provision does not apply to haulage or carriage of materials (i) into this area for use in the building of temples or in other public works or (ii) out of the City, including the sites aforesaid, on any demolition work that is being carried out under contract with the public authorities. Exceptions will also be made to provide for particular cases.
“The present law is not to be construed as prohibiting the circulation of vehicular traffic during the daytime on the dates of events in the three following categories: (i) religious processions, involving the use of waggons, in which the Vestal Virgins, the Rex Sacrorum, and the Flamines are participants; (ii) [military] [square brackets in original] triumphal processions; (iii) festivals administered by the public authorities, within a radius of less than one mile from the City, and circus performances involving the processional use of waggons.
“Furthermore, this law is not to be construed as prohibiting the presence in the City, or within a radius of one mile from it, during the ten hours after sunrise, of ox-drawn or horse-drawn waggons that have been brought into the City during the preceding night, if these waggons are returning empty or are carrying loads of night-soil.” [Footnote: Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, I, 2, 593, lines 56-67: C. G. Bruns, Fontes Iuris Romani Antiqui, 7th edition (Tübingen 1909, Mohr), p. 105. A previous English translation of this passage will be found in E. G. Hardy, Roman Laws and Charters (Oxford 1912, Clarendon Press), p. 153.]
It will be seen that this Roman regulation of 45 B.C. [promulgated by Julius Caesar] for the City of Rome could be applied, with advantage, to the London of A.D. 1969.
[...]
He quotes a passage from the younger Seneca on pedestrian traffic (and see Juvenal in the last post).
“In this City, even in its broadest streets, the flow of pedestrian traffic is continuous, and consequently, when any obstruction occurs which checks the current of this rushing human torrent [like the sheep in Juvenal], there is a formidable crush. The City’s population is of a magnitude that requires the simultaneous use of the auditoria of three theatres and the importation of food-supplies from all over the World.” [Footnote: Seneca, De Clementiâ, I, 6, 1 (written circa A.D. 54).]
Cities on the Move, OUP, 1970
