Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1314

 1290 VIA APPIA. describing his jouiney from Rome to Capua, com- plains of the extremely hilly character of the road in approaching Setia, (Lucil. Fragm. iii. 6, ed. Ger- lach.) Even in the time of Horace, as we learn from his well-known description of the journey to Brundusium, it was customary for travellers to con- tinue their route from Forum Appii by water, em- barking at that point on the canal through the Pontine iShirshes (Hor. Sat. i. 5. 1 1, &c.). But the very existence of this canal renders it probable that there was at that time a road by the side of it, as we know was the case in Strabo's time, notwithstand- ing which he tells us that the canal was much used by travellers, who made the voyage in the night, and thus gained time. (Strab. v. p. 233.) It will be convenient to divide the description of the Appian Way, as it existed under the Roman Em- pire, and is given in the Itineraries, into several portions. The first of these from Rome to Capua was the main trunk line, upon which all its branches and extensions depended. This will require to be described in more detail, as the most celebrated and frequented of all the Roman highways. 1. From Rome to Capua. The stations given in the Antonine Itinerary are : — From Rome to Aricia (Laricc/a) - - - xvi. m.p. Tres Tabernae. - - xvii. Appii Forum - - - x. Tarracina {Terracina) - xviii. Fundi {Fondi) - - - xvi. (xiii.) Formiae (Mola di Gaeta) xiii. Minturnae(near7'rrt5r?e<to) ix. Sinuessa (^Mondragone) - ix. Capua (iSto Maria) - - xvi.(xxvi.) The above stations are for the most part well known, and admit of no doubt. Those in the neigh- bourhood of the Pontine Marshes have indeed given rise to much confusion, but are in fact to be easily determined. Indeed, the line of the road being almost perfectly straight from Rome to Tarracina renders the investigation of the distances a matter of little difficulty. The Jerusalem Itineraiy (p. 611) subdivides the same distance as follows: Rome to Ad Nonum (mutatio) - - ix. si.p. Aricia (civitas). - - - vii. Sponsaeor Ad Sponsas (mutatio) xix. Appii Forum (do.) - - - - vii. (xii.?) Ad Medias (do.) - - - - ix. Tarracina (civitas) - - - x. Fundi (do.) - -. . - xiii. Formiae (do.) - xii. Minturnae (do.) - - - - ix. Sinuessa (do.) - ix. Pons Campanus (mutatio) - ix. Ad Octavum (do.) - - - ix. Capua (civitas) - - - - viii. The intermediate stations were (as they are ex- pressly called in the Itinerary itself) mere Mutationes, or posthouses, where relays of horses were kept. The determination of their position is therefore of no in- terest, except in connection with the distances given, which vary materially from those of the other Itine- rary, though the total distance from Rome to Capua (12.5 miles) is the same in both. The Appian Way issued from the Porta Capena, in the Servian walls of Rome, about half a mile out- side of which it separated from the Via Latina, so that the two roads passed through different gates in the walls of Aurelian. That by which the Via Appia finally quitted Rome was known as the Porta Appia ; VIA APPIA, it is now called the Porta S. Sebastkmo. The first milestone on the road stood about 120 yards outside this gate ; the distances always continuing to be measured from the old Porta Capena. The buildings and tombs which bordered the Via Appia in that portion of it which lay between the two gates, are de- scribed in the article Roma, p. 821. It was appa- rently in this part of its course, just outside the original city, that it was spanned by three triumphal arches, erected in honour of Drusus (the father of the emperor Claudius), Trajan, and L. Verus. One only of these still remains, just within the Porta S. Sebas- tiano, which, from its plain and unadorned style of architecture, is probably that of Drusus. Outside the Porta Appia the road descends to a small stream or brook, now called Acquataccia, which it crosses by a bridge less than half a mile from the gate : this trifling stream is identified, on good grounds, with the river Almo, celebrated for the peculiar sacred rites with which it was connected [Almo]. A short distance beyond this the road makes a considerable bend, and ascends a bank or ridge before it reaches the second milestone. From that point it is carried in a straight line direct to the remains of Bovillae at the foot of the Alban Hills, running the whole way along a, .slightly elevated bank or ridge, formed in all probability by a very ancient current of lava from the Alban Mount. This long, straight line of road, stretching across the CamjMgna. and bordered throughout by the remains of tombs and ruins of other buildings, is, even at the present day, one of the most striking features in the neighbourhood of Rome, and, when the edifices which bordered it were still perfect, must have constituted a magnificent approach to the Imperial City. The whole line has been recently cleared and carefully examined. It is described in detail by the Car. Canina ( in the An- nali deir Instituto di Corrispondenza A rcheologica for 1852 and 1853; and more briefly by Desjardins, Essai sur la Topo^raphie du Latiiim, 4to. Paris, 1854, pp. 92 — 130. We can here mention only some of the most interesting of the numerous monuments that have been thus brought to light, as well as those previously known and celebrated. On the right of the road, shortly after crossing the Almo, are the remains of a vast sepulchre, which now serve to support the tavern or Osteria delVAcqua- taccio ; this is clearly identified by the inscriptions discovered there in 1773, as the monument of Aba- scantius, a freedman of Domitian, and of his wife PrisciUa, of which Statins has left us in one of his poems a detailed description (Stat. Silv. v. 1). On the left of the road, almost exactly 3 miles from Rome, is the most celebrated of all the monuments of this kind, the massive sepulchre of Caecilia Me- tella, the daughter of Q. Metellus Creticus, and wife of Crassus the triumvir. Converted into a fortress in the middle ages, this tower-like monument is still in remarkable preservation, and, from its commanding position, is a conspicuous object from all points of the surrounding country. It is popularly known as the Capo di Bove, from the bueranium which appears as an ornament in the frieze. (A view of this re- markable nionument is given in the article Roma, p. 822.) Before reaching the Capo di Bove, the road passes some extensive remains of buildings on the left, which appear to have formed part of an imperial villa constructed by the emperor Maxentius, attached to which are the remains of a circus, also the work of the same emperor, and which, from their remarkably perfect condition, have thrown much light