Sea-born movement is often thought of as the default mode of transportation for Roman trade. Nonetheless, there was still a large volume of goods moving over land or along rivers. To better understand this aspect of the Roman movement of goods, it is useful to consider how the local populace thought of and approached transportation. An analysis of how Roman Egyptian contracts, leases, and letters dealt with both land and water transportation provides insight into how burdensome transportation was perceived to be and how transactions costs were distributed or reduced.