The Romans, who once controlled areas of Europe, North Africa and Asia Minor, adopted the construction techniques of other civilizations to build tunnels in their territories

曾经控制欧洲、北非和小亚细亚地区的罗马人，采用了其他文明的建筑技术，在他们的领土上修建隧道。

The Persians, who lived in present-day Iran, were one of the first civilizations to build tunnels that provided a reliable supply of water to human settlements in dry areas. In the early first millennium BCE, they introduced the qanat method of tunnel construction, which consisted  of placing posts over a hill in a straight line, to ensure that the tunnel kept to its route, and then digging vertical shafts down into the ground at regular intervals. Underground, workers removed the earth from between the ends of the shafts, creating a tunnel. The excavated soil was taken up to the surface using the shafts, which also provided ventilation during the work. Once the tunnel was completed, it allowed water to flow from the top of a hillside down towards a canal, which supplied water for human use. Remarkably, some qanats built by the Persians 2,700 years ago are still in use today.

生活在当今伊朗地区的波斯人是最早建造隧道为干旱地区的人类居住区提供了可靠的水源的文明之一。在公元前一千年的早期，他们引进了暗渠隧道建造方法，在山上沿直线放置标杆以确保隧道不偏离路线，然后每隔固定距离就向下挖掘深入地下的竖井。在地下，工人们将竖并未端之间的泥土挖出形成隧道。挖掘出的土壤通过竖井被带到地面，竖井在施工期也提供了通风功能。一旦隧道完工，水就可以从山顶流向运河，人类提供用水。值得注意的是，2700年前由波斯人建造的一些竖并至今仍在使用。

They later passed on their knowledge to the Romans, who also used the qanat method to construct water-supply tunnels for agriculture. Roman qanat tunnels were constructed with vertical shafts dug at intervals of between 30 and 60 meters. The shafts were equipped with handholds and footholds to help those climbing in and out of them and were covered with a wooden or stone lid. To ensure that the shafts were vertical, Romans hung a plumb line from a rod placed across the top of each shaft and made sure that the weight at the end of it hung in the center of the shaft. Plumb lines were also used to measure the depth of the shaft and to determine the slope of the tunnel. The 5.6-kilometer-long Claudius tunnel, built in 41 CE to drain the Fucine Lake in central Italy, had shafts that were up to 122 meters deep, took 11 years to build and involved approximately 30,000 workers.

他们随后把知识传授给罗马人，罗马人也用暗渠法修建了农业供水隧道。罗马暗渠隧道的竖并彼此间间隔30米到60米。竖井配备有扶手和踏脚点来帮助爬进爬出的工人，同时井口被木头或石头盖子盖着。为了确保竖并是垂直的，罗马人用一横穿竖井顶部的杆来悬挂铅垂线，并确保垂线未端的铅锤悬挂在竖井的正中间。铅垂线也被用于测量竖井的深度和隧道的坡度。建于公元41年的Claudius隧道长5.6公里，用于排出意大利中部 Fucine湖里的水，该隧道的竖井深达22米，历时11年修建成，约有30000名工人参与建设。

By the 6th century BCE, a second method of tunnel construction appeared called the counter- excavation method, in which the tunnel was constructed from both ends. It was used to cut through high mountains when the qanat method was not a practical alternative. This method required greater planning and advanced knowledge of surveying, mathematics and geometry as both ends of a tunnel had to meet correctly at the center of the mountain. Adjustments to the direction of the tunnel also had to be made whenever builders encountered geological problems or when it deviated from its set path. They constantly checked the tunnel's advancing direction, for example, by looking back at the light that penetrated through the tunnel mouth, and made corrections whenever necessary. Large deviations could happen, and they could result in one end of the tunnel not being usable. An inscription written on the side of a 428-meter tunnel, built by the Romans as part of the Saldae aqueduct system in modern-day Algeria, describes how the two teams of builders missed each other in the mountain and how the later construction of a lateral link between both corridors corrected the initial error.

到公元前6世纪，被称为“对凿法“的第二种隧道建造方法出现了，该方法从两端对凿来修建隧道。在暗渠法不适用时，就用该方法来凿穿高山。该方法需要更大量的规划以及有关勘测、 数学和几何学的高深知识，因为要确保隧道的两端在山的中心准确交汇。每当建造者遇到地质问题或偏离既定路线时，就需要调整隧道的前进方向。他们通过观察穿过隧道口的光线，来不断地检查隧道的前进方向，并在必要时做出修正。大偏差也是会发生的，这会导致隧道的一端无法使用。罗马人修建的一条428米长的隧道是如今阿尔及利亚Saldae高架渠系统中的一段，在该隧道一侧刻着一段铭文，描述了两队建筑工人在山上是如何相互错过的，以及后来是如何通过在两条通道之间修建横向纽带来改正之前的错误。

The Romans dug tunnels for their roads using the counter-excavation method, whenever they encountered obstacles such as hills or mountains that were too high for roads to pass over. An example is the 37-meter-long, 6-meter-high, Furlo Pass Tunnel built in Italy in 69–79 CE. Remarkably, a modern road still uses this tunnel today. Tunnels were also built for mineral extraction. Miners would locate a mineral vein and then pursue it with shafts and tunnels underground. Traces of such tunnels used to mine gold can still be found at the Dolaucothi mines in Wales. When the sole purpose of a tunnel was mineral extraction, construction required less planning, as the tunnel route was determined by the mineral vein.

每当罗马人遇到山丘或山脉等极其高大的障碍物导致道路无法通行时，就会采用对凿法挖掘隧道作为道路。建于公元69至79年间的意大利，长37米高6米的Furlo通道隧道就是一个例子。值得注意的是，有一条现代的道路至今仍在使用该隧道。以前隧道也会被用于采矿。矿工们会锁定矿脉，然后通过竖井和地下陇道进行开采。在威尔士的Dolaucothi矿山，人们仍然可以找到这种用来开采金矿的隧道的痕迹。当隧道的唯一目的是用来开采矿物，施工就不需要那么多规划了，因为隧道路线是由矿矿脉决定的。

Roman tunnel projects were carefully planned and carried out. The length of time it took to construct a tunnel depended on the method being used and the type of rock being excavated. The qanat construction method was usually faster than the counter-excavation method as it was more straightforward. This was because the mountain could be excavated not only from the tunnel mouths but also from shafts. The type of rock could also influence construction times. When the rock was hard, the Romans employed a technique called fire quenching which consisted of heating the rock with fire, and then suddenly cooling it with cold water so that it would crack. Progress through hard rock could be very slow, and it was not uncommon for tunnels to take years, if not decades, to be built. Construction marks left on a Roman tunnel in Bologna show that the rate of advance through solid rock was 30 centimeters per day. In contrast, the rate of advance of the Claudius tunnel can be calculated at 1.4 meters per day. Most tunnels had inscriptions showing the names of patrons who ordered construction and sometimes the name of the architect. For example, the 1.4-kilometer Çevlik tunnel in Turkey, built to divert the floodwater threatening the harbor of the ancient city of Seleuceia Pieria, had inscriptions on the entrance, still visible today, that also indicate that the tunnel was started in 69 CE and was completed in 81 CE.

罗马隧道工程都是经过精心规划和实施的。建造隧道所需的时间长短取决于所采用的方法和开凿的岩石类型。暗渠建造法因为它更简单直接，通常比对凿法更快。这是因为一座山体不仅可以从隧道口挖掘，也可以通过竖井。岩石的类型也会影响到建造的时长。当岩石很硬时，罗马人会采用一种称为淬火法的技术，用火加热岩石，然后突然用冷水冷却使其裂开。凿穿坚硬岩石的过程可能会非常缓慢需耍花费数年甚至数十年的时间才能建成的隧道并不罕见。位于博洛尼亚的一条罗马隧道留下的施工标记显示，凿穿坚硬岩石的推进速度是每天30厘米。相较而言，Claudius隧道的推进速度可以达到每天1.4米。大多数隧道都有铭文，上面刻着下令修建的赞助人的名字，有时还会刻上建筑师的名字。例如，土耳其为了分流威胁到Seleuceia Pieria古城港口的洪水而修建了一条1.4公里长的Cevlik隧道入口处有至今仍可见的铭文，表明了该隧道始建于公元69年，竣工于公元81年。