Writing about the new straight avenues of the 
seventeenth century cities, Mumford points to a factor that 
was also present in the Roman city with its wheeled traffic; 
namely, the need for broad straight avenues to speed military 
movements, and to express the pomp and circumstance of 
power. In the Roman world the army was the work force of a 
mechanized wealth-creating process. By means of soldiers as 
uniform and replaceable parts, the Roman military machine 
made and delivered the goods, very much in the manner of 
industry during the early phases of the industrial revolution. 
Trade followed the legions. More than that, the legions were the 
industrial machine, itself; and numerous new cities were like 
new factories manned by uniformly trained army personnel. 
With the spread of literacy after printing, the bond between the 
uniformed soldier and the wealth-making factory hand became 
less visible. It was obvious enough in Napoleon’s armies.