Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1317

 VIA APPIA, valley of the Caudine Forks, reached Caudium, which must have been situated about 4 miles bej'ond Arpaja, on the road to Beneventum. The distances given along this line are : — From Capua to Calatia - - - vi. m. p. Ad Novas - - - vi. Caudium - - - ix. Beneventum - - xi. (Ttiii. Ant. p. Ill ; Jtin. Hier. p. 610; Tah. Peut.) It was at Beneventum, as above shown, that the two main branches of the Appian Way separated : the one proceeding by Venusia and Tarentum to Brun- dusium; the other by EquusTuticus and Canusium to Barium, and thence along the coast of the Adriatic. We proceed to give these two branches separately. 3. From Beneventum to Brundusium, through Venusia and Tarentum. The line of this road is given in the Antonine Itine- rary (p. 120) as well as in the Tabula; but in this last it appears in so broken and confused a form that it would be unintelligible without the aid of the other authority. But that this line was the original Via Appia is proved not only by the distinct testimony of Strabo, and by incidental notices which show that it was the frequented and customary route in the time of Cicero (Cic. ad Att. v. 5, 7), but still more clearly by an inscription of the time of Hadrian, in which the road from Beneventum to Aeculanum is distinctly called the Via Appia. The greater part of the line from Beneventum to Venusia, and thence to Tarentum, was carried through a wild and mountainous country; and it is highly pro- bable that it was in great measure abandoned after the more convenient line of the Via Trajana was opened. It appears that Hadrian restored the por- tion from Beneventum to Aeculanum, but it is doubtful whether he did so farther on. Neverthe- less the general course of the road can be traced, though many of the stations cannot be fixed with certainty. The latter are thus given in the Antonine Itinerary : — From Beneventum to Aeculanum - xv. m. p. Sub Romulea - - -. xxi. Pons Aufidi - xxii. Venusia ( Venosa) - - - xviii. Silvium {Garagnone) - - xx. Blera {Gravina} . - - xiii. Sub Lnpatia - - - - xiv. Canales -- xiii. Tarentum {Taranto) - - xx. Aeculanum, or Eclanum as the name is written in the Itineraries, is fixed beyond a doubt at Le Grotte, near Mirabella, just 15 miles from Beneventum, where a town grew up on its ruins in the middle ages with the name of Quintodecimum. [Aecula- num.] The site of Romulea is much less certain, but may perhaps be placed at Bisaccia, and the sta- tion Sub Romulea in the valley below it. The Pons Aufidi. is the Ponte Sta Venere, on the road from Lacedugna to Venosa, which is unquestionably an ancient bridge, and the distance from Venusia agrees with that in the Itinerary, which is confirmed also in this instance by the Tabula. The latter authority gives as an intermediate station between Sub Romu- lea and the Pons Aufidi, Aquilonia, which is pro- bably Lacedogna; but the distances given are cer- tainly incorrect. In this wild and mountainous country it is obviously impossible at present to de- termine these with any accuracy. From Venusia again the Via Appia appears to have passed, in as direct VIA APPIA. 1293 a line as the nature of the country will allow, to Tarentum; the first station, Silvium, may probably be placed at Garagnone, and the second, Plera, or Blera, at or near Gravina ; but both determinations are very uncertain. Those of Sub Lupatia and Canales are still more vague, and, until the course of the ancient road shall have been traced upon the spot by some traveller, itis idle to multiply conjectures. From Tarentum to Brundusium the Antonine Itinerary gives 44 M. P., which is nearly correct; but the intermediate stations mentioned in the Tabula Mesochoron, Urbius, and Scamnum, cannot be iden- tified. Urbius may perhaps be a corruption of Uriuiii or Hyrium, the modern Oria, which is nearly mid- way between the two cities. Besides the main line of the Via Appia, as above described, the Itineraries mention several branches one of which appears to have struck off from Ve- nusia to Fotentia, and thence to have joined the highroad to Rhegium, while another descended from Venusia to Heraclea on the gulf of Tarentum, and thence followed the E. coast of the Bruttian peninsula. These lines are briefly noticed in the articles Lucania and Bkuttii, but they are very confused and uncertain. 4. From Beneventum by Canusium and Barium to Brundusium. It was this line of road, first constructed by Trajan, and which was originally distinguished as the Via Trajana, that became after the time of that em- peror the frequented and ordinary route to Brundu- sium, and thus came to be commonly considered as the Via Appia, of which it had in fact taken the place. Its line is in consequence given in all the Itineraries, and can be traced with little difliculty. It passed at first through a rugged and mountainous country, as far as Aecae in Apulia, from which place it was carried through the plains of Apulia to Ba- rium, and afterwards along the sea-coast to Brun- dusium: a line offering no natural difficulties, and which had the advantage of passing through a number of considerable towns. Even before the construction of the Via Trajana it was not uncom- mon (as we learn from the journey of Horace) for travellers to deviate from the Appian Way, and gain the plains of Apulia as speedily as possible. The first part of this road from Beneventum to Aecae may be traced by the assistance of ancient milestones, bridges, &c. (Mommsen, Topogr. degli Irpini, in the Bullet. deW Inst. Arch, for 1848, pp. 6, 7.) It proceeded by the villages of Padtdi, Buonalbergo, and Casalbore, to a place called S. Eleuterio, about 2 miles S. of Castelfranco, which was undoubtedly the site of Equus Tuticus, a much disputed point with Italian topographers. [Eguus Tuticus.] This is correctly placed by the Anto- nine Itinerary 21 miles from Beneventum ; the Je- rusalem Itinerary, which makes it 22 miles, divides the distance at a station called Forum Novum, wbicli must have been situated at or very near Buonalbergo. From Equus Tuticus, the road followed a NE. direction to Aecae (the site of which is clearly known as that of the modern Troja), and thence turned in a direction nearly due E. to Ilerdonia (Ordona'). The object of this great bend was pro- bably to open a connnunication with Luceria and the other towns of Northern Apulia, as well as perhaps to avoid the defile of the Cervaro, above Borino, through which the modern road passes. At Aecae the Via Trajana descended into the great plain of Apulia, .across which it was carried in a nearly