VIA APPIA
the road built in 312 by the censor Appius Claudius Caecus
to Capua, prolonged to Venusia in 291 and then to Tarentum (281) and
Brundusium (264) (
Liv. ix. 29). It was among the most famous of Roman
roads (
Strabo v. 3. 9, P. 237; Stat.
Silv. iv. 3. 1-3, 40-55;
ii. 2. 12:
longarum regina viarum; Not. app.
1; Eins. i. I, 8; 13. 20). Its independent existence began opposite the Septizonium, where the roads
from the Colosseum and the circus Maximus and the vicus Piscinae
Publicae all join; but we know nothing of the name of the short intramural portion. It issued from the
PORTA CAPENA of the Servian
wall, and through the wall of Aurelian by the
PORTA APPIA, curving
slightly and ascending through a cutting (
CLIVUS MARTIS) before it
reached the latter. This part of its course ran a little further north-
east than the modern Via di Porta S. Sebastiano. It was flanked by
tombs and columbaria both within and without the walls.
The first milestone was situated just inside the porta Appia (LS iii. I;
CIL x. 6812-3; HF i. p. 409). The original road was only gravelled
(glareo strata); in 296 B.C. a footpath was laid saxo quadrato from
the gate to the templum Martis (
Liv. x. 23. 12); three years later the
whole road was paved with silex from the temple to Bovillae (ib. 47. 4),
and in 189 B.C. the first mile, from the gate to the temple, was similarly
treated (
Liv. xxxviii. 28. 3). Its further course cannot be dealt with
here.
2
The earliest milestone we have belongs to about 250 B.C. (CIL i².
21), and others belong to Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian and Theodoric (
CIL
ix. 6075;
x. 6812-6880; cf. p. 99 ;
NS 1910, 292).
For the road as a whole, see Canina, Via Appia, Rome 1853; T i.
35-71, 588-597;
ix. 3-407;
RE ii. 238-242; M61. 1903, 375-418; HJ
200, 209-213.
For its curatores (who owe their institution to Claudius, with the
other curatores of particular roads, see Senec. Apoc. I:
Appiae viae
curator est qua scis et Tiberium Caesarem et Augustum ad deos isse),
see
CIL ii. 1929; CIG 4029;
v. 865, 4341;
vi. 3832=31719;
ix. 1129;
xiv. 2505, to whose staff the tabularii viae Appiae (
CIL vi. 8466),
belonged. For a manceps viae Appiae, cf. ib. 8468.
