Samuel Ball Platner, Thomas Ashby, A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome

VIA CORNELIA

the road which ran along the north side of the circus Gai, diverging from the via Triumphalis a little to the west of the pons Neronianus, near a large tomb (the so-called META ROMULI, q.v.; cf. Mon. L. i. 525-527; LR 560; DAP 2. viii. 383). Various tombs orientated on its axis were found in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in the rebuilding of S. Peter's, and on it was situated the tomb of the Apostle himself (Lanciani, Pagan and Christian Rome 126-131; HJ 658-660). After the construction of the pons Aelius it was prolonged eastward to communicate with it (see PORTA CORNELIA). It left the Leonine wall by the porta Pertusa (KH iii.; LF 13), and ran westward for some 9 miles. Thus far it is clearly traceable; but whether it turned northwards to Boccea or what course it followed after that is quite uncertain. It was under the curatores of the VIA AURELIA (Mel. 1902, 1-7; T. ix. 463, 464, 481-490).