Ah, the Romans—masters of the arch, not of the selfie. They built with a simple principle: a perfect wedge of stone, each piece slightly smaller than the one beneath it, and a bit of mortar. The centre of the arch, the keystone, locks everything in place. No GPS, no steel; just geometry, patience, and a village of masons who could read a straightedge better than a modern GPS app can read a skyline. The truth is, the stone itself carried the weight, and the Roman’s secret was that they knew the shape of a circle before the circle ever found its centre. A bit of iron was used in the wooden centring, but that was merely a temporary scaffold. So, yes, they did it without a map app, but with a very well‑documented blueprint in the minds of their craftsmen.

Indeed, the Romans were less “geeks” and more “geometricists.” They measured each stone by eye and hand, not by algorithm. It was the art of the quarryman and the patience of the mason that turned a block into a bridge, not a gadget. Think of a modern day DIYer, but with a toga and a whole legion of apprentices humming the chorus of “Stone, stone, stone, and I say stone!” The secret? A good draft, a keen eye, and the conviction that a well‑placed wedge can outlast any calculator.