The Roman Empire was expanding, but what should they call this new land? They couldn't call it Rome; that name was already taken. So the Romans called their new land provinces. A province might be a whole country such as the province of Britain, or the province of Egypt, or it might be a part of a country such as the province of Venice (a city in northern Italy).

Rome's provinces made Rome rich by providing food, taxes, metals, and other resources. Rome gave the provinces peace and stability (called Pax Romana). While some of the provinces, such as Egypt and Turkey, were glad to be part of the Roman Empire, others, such as Britain, Gaul, preferred to be free of the Romans. The provinces contributed to Rome's greatness, but they also led to its downfall and destruction by barbarians.

As Rome grew and added new provinces to the empire, it also built roads to connect these provinces to Rome. This is the origin of the saying "all roads lead to Rome."

The Romans also used waterways. The Rhone River in France was especially important as it linked Rome with several important provinces in France and Germany. They used the rivers to float huge barges that brought food to the provinces, much of it stored in clay pots with corks.

Source: Roman Provinces
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