VIA FLAMINIA
* (Not. app.; Eins. 4. 10):
constructed in 220 B.C. during
the censorship of C. Flaminius (Liv. Epit. xx.;
Strabo v. 217 wrongly
ascribes it to C. Flaminius the younger) from Rome to Ariminum. Its
importance led to its having a special curator as early as 65 B.C. (Cic.
ad Att. i. I. 2), and it was restored by Augustus himself in 27 B.C. (Mon.
Anc. iv. 19; Suet. Aug. 30; Cass.
Dio liii. 22; Cohen, Aug. 229-235,
541-544=BM. Aug. 79-81, 432-436). It was a much frequented road
(
Strabo v. 227; Tac.
Hist. i. 86;
ii. 64), and the four silver cups of about
the time of Trajan, found at Vicarello, on which is the itinerary by land
from Rome to Gades, prove this (
CIL xi. 3281-3284). Cf. Hist. Aug.
Maximin. 25. 2.
The road gave its name to one of the districts of Italy as early as the
second century A.D. We have epigraphic testimony of the importance
of the traffic on it (
praef. vehiculorum a copis Aug. per viam Flaminiam
CIL x. 7585; praepositus [cursualis] de via Flabinia (sic) ib. vi. 33714).
For milestones and other inscriptions relating to repairs, cf.
CIL xi. 6619,
sqq.
The via Flaminia started in a north-north-west direction from a
gate of the Servian wall on the east slope of the Capitol which had wrongly
been identified with the
PORTA RATUMENA, though later topographers
identify it with the
PORTA FONTINALIS (
RhM 1894, 411). It turned
slightly westward a little before passing the tomb of
BIBULUS (q.v.),
and passing the so-called tomb of the Claudii, resumed its former direction.
It then ran across the campus Martius, forming the boundary between the
seventh and ninth regions of Augustus, and on in an absolutely straight
line to the pons Mulvius, a distance of about 3 miles. Burial on it
was regarded as a special honour; cf. Stat. Silv. ii. I. 176;
Mart. vi. 28,
29;
viii. 75. 1, 2 (see
VIA TECTA);
xi. 13;
Iuv. i. 170; see HJ 462-464,
471, 484, 491-492, 621. The part within the Aurelian walls was known
as the via Lata from the fourth century A.D. onwards. The modern
Corso coincides absolutely with the ancient line, and the two churches
which flank it where it ends in the Piazza del Popolo both stand on
ancient tombs, while many other tombs were sacrificed for the construction of the
PORTA FLAMINIA.
The cura of the road was generally held alone (
CIL ii. 4126, 4510
(cf. xiv. 3599) ;
vi. 1333, 1529, 3836;
x. 506 ; Rev. Arch. 1889, i. 426,
n. 92;
BC 1891, 111), but once appears associated with that of the
Tiburtina
1 (
CIL xiv. 2933;
BC 1891, 108-112).
The curatores of the via Clodia, which diverged from the via Flaminia
at the pons Mulvius, had under them the via Cassia and a variety of other
roads (the Annia, Ciminia, tres Traianae, Amerina;
BC 1891, 100-107;
for the relative antiquity of the Clodia and Cassia, cf.
Mel. 1913,
192, 206, 240-244).
See REvi. 2493-2496;
T. i. 375-587;
x. 199-375;
JRS 1921, 125-190.
