The story
Modern wording of medieval sentiment; apparently originally a reference to Roman roads generally and the Milliarium Aureum (Golden Milestone) specifically. Appears in the Latin form mīlle viae dūcunt hominēs per saecula Rōmam (“a thousand roads lead men forever to Rome”) in Liber Parabolarum, 591 (1175), by Alain de Lille. The earliest English form appears to be “right as diverse pathes leden the folk the righte wey to Rome”, in A Treatise on the Astrolabe (Prologue, ll. 39–40), 1391, by Geoffrey Chaucer.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.