Expert: Irulan Serena - 6/19/2006

Question
I am trying very hard to find out source material (in English) which talks about 1st Century Roman public sea transport on the Mediterranean Sea.
I have something of an idea that some people travelled by sea, usually on merchant cargo ships - am I right? There seems to have been no passenger ship as such in those days.
Also Suetonius talking about Emperor Tiberius mentioned him planning to charter transport for trips he never took. (Suetonius, Tiberius, Para. 38, Penguin Classics Page 134). Is this how it worked? Did the rich even emperors have to charter boats more or less as they do today?
Basically, I want to understand how did ordinary people get on a boat? Was there a kind of passenger licence system or a standard fee people paid?

Answer
Ancient Romans traveled by land and sea. Sea travel was very expensive; the regular citizen could not afford to travel by sea so they walked, however, the rich chartered boats. From earliest times  they built bridges across the river Tiber, and any other rive which blocked their travels of conquest.

As they expanded their power across their new territorial acquisitions the Romans linked the capital with other communities they had conquered by a network known as the famous Roman roads to facilitate travel for military and commercial purposes. Ordinary people who wihed to travel either traveled with a rih friend by boat or walked, there were no passenger licence system or a standard fee.