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Appian Way
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== Construction == [[File:Via Appia map.jpg|thumb|The path of the Via Appia and of the Via Appia Traiana]] The main part of the Appian Way was started and finished in 312 BC. The road began as a leveled dirt road upon which small stones and [[Mortar (masonry)|mortar]] were laid. Gravel was laid upon this, which was finally topped with tight fitting, interlocking stones to provide a flat surface. The historian Procopius said that the stones fit together so securely and closely that they appeared to have grown together rather than to have been fitted together.<ref>Tingay, G.I.F., and J. Badcock. ''These Were The Romans''. ed. Chester Springs, Pennsylvania: Dufour Editions, Inc., 1989. {{ISBN?}}{{page?|date=December 2024}}</ref> The road was cambered in the middle (for water runoff) and had ditches on either side of the road which were protected by retaining walls. === Between Rome and Lake Albano === [[File:Roma, Circo di Massenzio (7).jpg|thumb|The [[Circus of Maxentius]]]] The road began in the [[Roman Forum|Forum Romanum]], passed through the [[Servian Wall]] at the [[porta Capena]], went through a cutting in the [[clivus Martis]], and left the city. For this stretch of the road, the builders used the Via Latina. The building of the [[Aurelian Wall]] centuries later required the placing of another gate, the [[Porta Appia]]. Outside of Rome the new Via Appia went through well-to-do suburbs along the Via Norba, the ancient track to the [[Alban hills]], where [[Norba]] was situated. The road at the time was a via glarea, a gravel road. The Romans built a high-quality road, with layers of cemented stone over a layer of small stones, cambered, drainage ditches on either side, low retaining walls on sunken portions, and dirt pathways for sidewalks. The Via Appia is believed to have been the first Roman road to feature the use of lime cement. The materials were volcanic rock. The surface was said to have been so smooth that you could not distinguish the joints. The Roman section still exists and is lined with monuments of all periods, although the cement has eroded out of the joints, leaving a very rough surface. === Across the marsh === The road concedes nothing to the [[Alban hills]], but goes straight through them over cuts and fills. The gradients are steep. Then it enters the former Pontine Marshes. A stone causeway of about {{convert|19|mi|km|sp=us|order=flip}} led across stagnant and foul-smelling pools blocked from the sea by sand dunes. Appius Claudius planned to drain the marsh, taking up earlier attempts, but he failed. The causeway and its bridges subsequently needed constant repair. In 162 BC, Marcus Cornelius Cathegus had a canal constructed along the road to relieve the traffic and provide an alternative when the road was being repaired. Romans preferred using the canal.{{Citation Needed|date=February 2023}} [[File:Roma Appia Antica - mausoleo Cecilia Metella.JPG|thumb|left|[[Tomb of Caecilia Metella]] and the ''castrum [[Caetani]]'']] === Along the coast === The Via Appia picked up the coastal road at [[Terracina|Tarracina]] (Terracina). However, the Romans straightened it somewhat with cuttings, which form cliffs today. From there the road swerved north to Capua, where, for the time being, it ended. The [[Caudine Forks]] were not far to the north. The itinerary was [[Ariccia|Aricia]] (Ariccia), [[Three Taverns|Tres Tabernae]], [[Forum Appii]], Tarracina, [[Fondi, Italy|Fundi]] (Fondi), [[Formiae]] (Formia), [[Minturnae]] (Minturno), [[Suessa Pometia|Suessa]], [[Casilinum]] and Capua, but some of these were colonies added after the Samnite Wars. The distance was {{convert|132|mi|km|sp=us|order=flip|}}. The original road had no milestones, as they were not yet in use. A few survive from later times, including a first milestone near the Porta Appia. === Extension to Beneventum === [[File:Minturno Via-Appia.jpg|thumb|Via Appia within the ancient [[Minturno]]]] The [[Third Samnite War]] (298–290 BC) is perhaps misnamed. It was an all-out attempt by all the neighbors of Rome: Italics, Etruscans and [[Gauls]], to check the power of Rome. The Samnites were the leading people of the conspiracy. Rome dealt the northerners a crushing blow at the [[Battle of Sentinum]] in [[Umbria]] in 295. The Samnites fought on alone. Rome now placed 13 colonies in Campania and Samnium. It must have been during this time that they extended the Via Appia 35 miles beyond Capua past the Caudine Forks to a place the Samnites called Maloenton, "passage of the flocks". The itinerary added [[Calatia]], [[Caudium]] and [[Benevento|Beneventum]] (not yet called that).<ref>William Smith, ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography'' (London, 1854), 1292–93. ''[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0064:entry=via-appia-geo]''</ref> Here also ended the [[Via Latina]].<ref>William Smith, ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography'' (London, 1854), 1303. ''[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0064:entry=via-latina-geo]''</ref> === Extension to Apulia and Calabria === By 290 BC, the sovereignty of the Samnites had ended. The heel of Italy lay open to the Romans. The dates are somewhat uncertain and there is considerable variation in the sources, but during the Third Samnite War the Romans seem to have extended the road to [[Venusia]], where they placed a colony of 20,000 men. After that they were at Tarentum. Roman expansion alarmed Tarentum, the leading city of the Greek presence (Magna Graecia) in southern Italy. They hired the mercenary King [[Pyrrhus of Epirus]] in neighboring [[Greece]] to fight the Romans on their behalf. In 280 BC the Romans suffered a defeat at the hands of Pyrrhus at the [[Battle of Heraclea]] on the coast west of [[Taranto|Tarentum]]. The battle was costly for both sides, prompting Pyrrhus to remark "One more such victory and I am lost." Making the best of it, the Roman army turned on Greek [[Rhegium]] and effected a massacre of Pyrrhian partisans there. Rather than pursue them, Pyrrhus went straight for Rome along the Via Appia and then the Via Latina. He knew that if he continued on the Via Appia he could be trapped in the marsh. Wary of such entrapment on the Via Latina also, he withdrew without fighting after encountering opposition at [[Anagni]]. Wintering in [[Campania]], he withdrew to Apulia in 279 BC, where, pursued by the Romans, he won a second costly victory at the [[Battle of Asculum]]. Withdrawing from Apulia for a Sicilian interlude, he returned to Apulia in 275 BC and started for Campania up the Roman road. Supplied by that same road, the Romans successfully defended the region against Pyrrhus, crushing his army in a two-day fight at the [[Battle of Beneventum (275 BC)|Battle of Beneventum]] in 275 BC. The Romans renamed the town from "Maleventum" ("site of bad events") to Beneventum ("site of good events") as a result. Pyrrhus withdrew to Greece, where he died in a street fight in Argos in 272 BC. Tarentum fell to the Romans that same year, who proceeded to consolidate their rule over all of Italy.<ref>See: ''The Harper Encyclopedia of Military History'', p. 66</ref> The Romans pushed the Via Appia to the port of [[Brundisium]] in 264 BC. The itinerary from Beneventum was now [[Aeculanum]], {{ill|Forum Aemilii|it}}, [[Venusia]], [[Gravina in Puglia|Silvium]], Tarentum, [[Oria (town)|Uria]] and Brundisium. The Roman Republic was the government of Italy, for the time being. Appius Claudius died in 273, but in extending the road a number of times, no one has tried to displace his name upon it. ==== Rediscovery ==== The Appian Way's path across today's regions [[Lazio]] and [[Campania]] has always been well known, but the exact position of the part located in Apulia (the original one, not the extension by Trajan) was long unknown, since there were no visible remains of the Appian Way in that region.<ref>[[#lugli-orientate|lugli-orientate]]</ref><ref>[[#piepoli-2014|piepoli-2014]]</ref> In the first half of the 20th century, the professor of ancient Roman topography [[Giuseppe Lugli]] managed to discover, with the then-innovative technique of [[photogrammetry]], what probably was the route of the Appian Way from [[Gravina in Puglia]] (''Silvium'') up to [[Taranto]]. When analysing [[aerophotogrammetry|aerophotogrammetric]] shots of the area, Lugli noticed a path ({{langx|it|tratturo}}) named ''la Tarantina'', whose direction was still largely influenced by the [[centuriation]]; this, according to Lugli, was the path of the Appian Way. This path, as well as the part located in today's [[Apulia]] region, was still in use in the [[Middle Ages]]. A further piece of evidence for Lugli's proposed path is the presence of a number of archaeological remains in that region, among them the ancient settlement of Jesce.<ref>[[#lugli-orientate|lugli-orientate]]</ref><ref>[[#piepoli-2014|piepoli-2014]]</ref> By studying the distances given in the [[Antonine Itinerary]], Lugli also assigned the Appian Way stations ''Blera'' and ''Sublupatia'' (which also occurs on the ''[[Tabula Peutingeriana]]'') respectively to the areas ''Murgia Catena'' and ''Taverna'' (between masseria (estate farmhouse) S. Filippo and masseria S. Pietro). However, the toponym ''Murgia Catena'' defined too large an area, not allowing a clear localization of the Appian Way station. More recently Luciano Piepoli, based on the distances given in the [[Antonine Itinerary]] and on newer archeological findings, has suggested that ''Silvium'' should be ''Santo Staso'', an area very close to [[Gravina in Puglia]], ''Blera'' should be ''masseria Castello'', and ''Sublupatia'' should be ''masseria Caione''.<ref>[[#lugli-orientate|lugli-orientate]]</ref><ref>[[#piepoli-2014|piepoli-2014]]</ref> === Main branches === Since the latter stretch of the Appian Way turned out to be very impervious, some branches were created: first the {{ill|Via Aemilia in Hirpinis|it|lt=Via Aemilia}}, then the {{ill|Via Minucia|it}}, finally the emperor [[Trajan]] built the [[Via Traiana]], a branch of the Via Appia from Beneventum, reaching Brundisium via [[Canosa di Puglia|Canusium]] and [[Bari]]um rather than via Tarentum. This was commemorated by an arch at Beneventum. Travellers could cross the [[Adriatic Sea]] through the [[Strait of Otranto|Otranto Strait]] towards [[Albania]] either by landing at present day [[Durrës]] through the [[Via Egnatia]] or near the ancient town of [[Apollonia (Illyria)|Apollonia]] and continue towards present day [[Rrogozhinë]] in central Albania.<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=haFlGXIg8uoC&q=via+appia+albania&pg=PA471 |title = Historical Dictionary of Albania|isbn = 978-0-8108-7380-3|last1 = Elsie|first1 = Robert|date = 2010| publisher=Scarecrow Press }}</ref>
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