Which of the following best describes the roman empire's public works projects?
a. the payments rome forced its subjects to make to fund its public worksprojects impoverished most of the roman empire's inhabitants.
b. through its public works projeccts, the roman empire built aqueducts, roads, bridges, harbors, and other infrstucture that significantly improved the welfare of its people.
c. the roman empire's public works projects were focused on building structures with specific military applications.
d. rome's public works projects benefited its people, but most historians agree that they did not justify the massive use of slave labor required to carry them out.

B. Through its public works projects, the Roman Empire built aqueducts, roads, bridges, harbors, and other infrastructure that significantly improved the welfare of its people.

Explanation:

Roman public works had a highly positive effect in the provinces of the Roman Republic and then the Empire. Roads and bridges, for example, made trade much easier for merchants as well as they enabled the Roman legions to mobilize to areas where they were needed in a faster and more efficient way. It is noteworthy to say that Roman builders did not like to build around natural obstacles such as mountains or rivers, so they came up with solutions to build roads as straight as possible, which kept distances between towns  and cities as short as possible. Aqueducts allowed the construction of large cities by providing a steady supply of drinking water and sewage water. As of harbors, Roman engineers invented a special and very useful type of cement called "hydraulic cement" which consisted of volcanic ashes added to regular cement with the property of solidifying quickly underwater. Therefore, harbors such as the artificial harbor of Cesarea, in Palestine, greatly boosted sea trade around the Mediterranean Sea.