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APPIA, VIA

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Originally appearing in Volume V02, Page 222 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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APPIA, VIA , a high-road leading from See also:Rome to See also:Campania and See also:lower See also:Italy, constructed in 312 B.C. by the See also:censor Appius See also:Claudius Caecus. It originally ran only as far as See also:Capua, but was successively prolonged to Beneventum, See also:Venusia, See also:Tarentum and Brundusium, though at what See also:dates is unknown. Probably it was extended as far as Beneventum not See also:long after the colonization of this See also:town in 268 B.C., and it seems to have reached Venusia before Igo B.C. See also:Horace, in the See also:journey to Brundusium described in Sat. i. 5, followed the Via Appia as far as Beneventum, but not beyond. The See also:original road was no doubt only gravelled (glarea strata); in 298 B.C. a footpath was laid saxo quadrato from the Porta See also:Capena, by which it See also:left Rome, to the See also:temple of See also:Mars, about 1 m. from the See also:gate. Three years later, however, the whole road was paved with silex from the temple to See also:Bovillae, and in 191 B.C. the first mile from the gate to the temple was similarly treated. The distance from Rome to Capua was 132 M. For the first few See also:miles the road is flanked by an uninterrupted See also:series of tombs and other buildings (see L. See also:Canina, Via Appia, Rome, 1853). As far as See also:Terracina it ran in an almost entirely straight See also:line, even through the See also:Alban Hills, where the gradients are steep. A remarkably See also:fine See also:embankment belonging to it still exists at See also:Aricia.

At See also:

Forum Appii it entered the Pomptine Marshes; that this portion (19 M. long, hence called Decennovium) belonged to the original road was proved by the See also:discovery at Ad Medias (See also:Mesa) of a milestone of about 250 B.C. (Ch. Hulsen, in Romische Mitteilungen, 1889, 83; 1895, 301). A still older road ran along the See also:foot of the Volscian mountains past Cora, See also:Norba and See also:Setia; this served as the See also:post road until the end of the 18th See also:century. At the See also:time of See also:Strabo and Horace, however, it was the practice to travel by See also:canal from Forum Appii to Lucus Feroniae; to See also:Nerva and See also:Trajan were due the paving of the road and the repair of the See also:bridges along this See also:section. See also:Theodoric in A.D. 486 ordered the See also:execution of similar See also:repairs, the success of which is recorded in See also:inscriptions, but in the See also:middle ages it was abandoned and impassable, and was only renewed by See also:Pius VI. The older road crossed the back of the promontory at the foot of which Terracina stands; in imperial times, probably, the See also:rock was cut away perpendicularly for a height of 120 ft. to allow the road to pass. Beyond Fundi it passed through the mountains to Formiae, the See also:engineering of the road being noteworthy; and thence by See also:Minturnae and Sinuessa (towns of the See also:Aurunci which had been conquered in 314 B.C.)1 to Capua. The remains of the road in this first portion are particularly striking. Between Capua and Beneventum, a distance of 32 m., the road passed near the See also:defile of Caudium (see CAUDINE FORKS). The See also:modern highroad follows the See also:ancient line, and remains of the It is important to See also:note how the See also:Romans followed up every victory with a road.latter, with the exception of three well-preserved bridges, which still serve for the modern highroad, are conspicuous by their See also:absence.

The portion of the road from Rome to Beneventum is described by See also:

Sir R. See also:Colt See also:Hoare, Classical Tour through Italy, 57 seq. (See also:London, 1819). He was accompanied on his journey, made in 1789, by the artist Carlo Labruzzi, who executed a series e of 226 drawings, the greater See also:part of which have not been published; they are described by T. See also:Ashby in Melanges de l'Ecole Francaise de Rome (1903), p. 375 seq., and Atti del Congresso Internazionale per le Scienze Storiche, vol. v. (Rome, 1904), p. 125 seq. From Beneventum to Brundusium by the Via Appia, through Venusia and Tarentum, was 202 M. A shorter route, but more fitted for See also:mule See also:traffic, though Horace drove along part of it,2 ran by Aequum Tuticum, Aecae, Herdoniae, See also:Canusium, See also:Barium, and See also:Gnatia (Strabo vi. 282); it was made into a See also:main road bl Trajan, and took the name Via Traiana. The original road, too, adopted in imperial times a more devious but easier route by See also:Aeclanum instead of by Trevicum.

This was restored by See also:

Hadrian for the 15 M. between Beneventum and Aeclanum. Under See also:Diocletian and Maximian a road (the Via Herculia) was constructed from Aequum Tuticum to Pons Aufidi near Venusia, where it crossed the Via Appia and went on into Lucania, passing through Potentia and See also:Grumentum, and joining the Via See also:Popilia near Nerulum. Though it must have lost much of its importance through the construction of the Via Traiana, the last portion from Tarentum to Brundusium was restored by See also:Constantine about A.D. 315. The Via Appia was the most famous of See also:Roman roads; See also:Statius, Silvae, ii. 2. 12, calls it longarum See also:regina viarum. It was administered under the See also:empire by a See also:curator of praetorian See also:rank, as were the other important roads of Italy. A large number of milestones and other inscriptions See also:relating to its repair at various times are known. See Ch. Hulsen in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopadie, ii. 238 seq.

(See also:

Stuttgart, 1896). (T.

End of Article: APPIA, VIA

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