VIA LATINA
a road which branched off to the left from the via Appia
830 metres from the porta Capena, and after 500 metres more passed
through the
PORTA LATINA of the Aurelian wall. The whole triangle
between the two roads was occupied by tombs (
T. ii. 19; LR 321-337;
LF 46; HJ 209-212; cf.
SEPULCRUM POMPONII HYLAE,
SEPULCRUM
SCIPIONUM), which continued for a long way along both sides of the
road (
Iuv. i. 170:
experiar quid concedatur in illos quorum Flaminia
tegitur cinis atque Latina), which, like the via Appia, ran in a straight
line for the first ii miles.
Liv. ii. 39 uses it, in speaking of Coriolanus,
only as a geographical description; for it was not in existence so early.
Its history is unknown, but its straightness of line shows that it was
not a primitive road but an artificial military highway; and it was
probably constructed after the pass of Algidus had been secured in
389 B.C.; and it must have run at least as early as 334 B.C. as far as Cales
(
Liv. x. 36).
It was joined at three different points by the via Labicana or by
branches.
Strabo v. 3. 9, p. 237, shows that the via Latina was in his
time regarded as the principal road, and indeed he classes it with the
Appia and Valeria as among the most famous; but in later times the
easier line taken by the via Labicana may have commended it to travellers,
though the Latina was kept up also (for a milestone of Maxentius, see
PBS i. 278). The distance being identical, the milestones will agree
with the numeration along either road (
PBS iv. 7, 8). In any case
the independent existence of both ceased at Casilinum, where they joined
the via Appia.
At the beginning of the third century A.D. the viae Labicana and
Latina vetus were under one curator (
CIL iii. 6154;
x. 5394; EE iv.
p. 223 name both roads-the via Latina is qualified as vetus in the first
of these-ii. 1929;
iii. 1455;
vi. 1337, 1450;
x. 3732;
xi. 2106;
xiv.
2942, 3595;
BCH 1879, 272; Rev. Arch. 1889, ii. 126; and Stat.
Silv.
iv. 4. 60, only the Latina;
vi. 332;
x. 1259, only the Labicana), while
there was a separate official for the via Latina Nova (x. 5398; see
BC
1891, 112-121). What this last road was, we do not know-nor the
significance of the inscription 'Viae Latinae Gr' under a recumbent female
figure holding a wheel, a personification of the road (MD 4101 ;
T. ii. 5;
CIL vi. 29811). For mention of it at a later period, see Not. app.; Eins.
10. 3. See Jord. i. I. 359;
T. ii. 1-318; xi.;
PBS iv. 1-159;
v. 213-432.
