The saying "All roads lead to Rome" means simply that all paths or activities lead to the center of things. This saying comes from the days of the Roman Empire, when Rome ruled over most of the known world. The roads built at that time were for military use, so all the empire's roads started from the capital city, Rome, and spread out to cover the whole empire. The long highways were important for maintaining both the stability and the expansion of the empire. The Romans became famous for, among other things, their 80,000 kilometers of hard-surface highways. The saying "All roads lead to Rome" came into use in the 1100s as a metaphor, with the meaning that all different methods will still produce the same result.

公元前3世紀(jì)，羅馬帝國統(tǒng)一了整個(gè)亞平寧半島。公元前1世紀(jì)，羅馬城成為地跨亞、非、歐三洲，羅馬帝國的政治、經(jīng)濟(jì)和文化中心。羅馬帝國為了加強(qiáng)其統(tǒng)治，修建了以羅馬城為中心，通向四面八方的大道。這些大道為鞏固羅馬帝國的統(tǒng)治和其擴(kuò)張發(fā)揮了巨大作用。道路系統(tǒng)是以羅馬城為中心向四周放射的，所以走任何一條大路都能到達(dá)羅馬城?，F(xiàn)在，這個(gè)成語比喻的是，通過不同方法可以得到同一個(gè)結(jié)果。