milliarium

thumb|Replica of a milestone on the Via Claudia Augusta near [[Unterdiessen, Germany, with a modern inscription in German]] A miliarium () was a cylindrical, oval or parallelepiped column placed on the edge of Roman roads to mark the distances every thousand passus (double Roman steps), that is, every mile. Today, this is equivalent to a distance of approximately 1480 meters. The stone known as the Milliarium Aureum was the point used to indicate the distance to Rome from any point in the Roman Empire.