What is "royal road"

n. an auspicious way or means to achieve something; "the royal road to success"

The Royal Road was an ancient highway reorganized and rebuilt by the Persian king Darius the Great (Darius I) of the first ( Achaemenid) Persian Empire in the 5th century BC. Darius built the road to facilitate rapid communication throughout his very large empire from Susa to Sardis ("centralized rule is the victim of time and distance," Robin Lane Fox has observed in this context). Mounted couriers of the Angarium could travel 1677 miles (2699 km) in seven days; the journey from Susa to Sardis took ninety days on foot. The Greek historian Herodotus wrote, "There is nothing in the world that travels faster than these Persian couriers." Herodotus's praise for these messengers—"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds"— was inscribed on the James Farley Post Office in New York and is sometimes thought of as the United States Postal Service creed.

The Royal Road was an ancient Persian highway.

Royal Road may also refer to:

• Royal Road, Kraków, Poland
• The Royal Road, a 2015 documentary film
• The Royal Road in the fictional world of Middle-earth

• El Camino Real (Spanish)
• Estrada Real (Portuguese)
• Rue Royale (French)
• Via Regia (Latin)