350 



ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1934 



and seas seemed to inspire rather than to dismay or to weaken the 

 will to conquer of the indomitable Romans. Their audacity beggars 

 description (5). They seem to have had little regard for topography 

 and built in straight lines undaunted by natural obstacles. Moun- 

 tains were cut through at tremendous expense, valleys filled, and 

 marshes bridged. Even the seas did not halt their progress, for the 

 roads were built up to the waters' edge and then continued upon the 

 opposite shore. Thus the road in France from Rheims to the Chan- 

 nel was brought to an end temporarily by the intervening expanse 

 of water, only to be resumed again in Great Britain, upon the other 

 side of the Channel, whence it extended into Scotland. Similarly, 

 from the southern extremity of the Appian Way at Hydruntum the 

 sea was crossed to Dyrrachium, the western terminus of the great 

 Egnatian Highway running through Macedonia to Byzantium. 



HYDRUNTUM 



Figure 2. — Via Appia w.is a single road from Rome to Beneventum and frum Bruiulisium 

 to Hydruntum. There were two branches between Beneventum and Brundisium. 



VIA APPIA THE MOST IMPORTANT ROMAN ROAD 



The Via Appia was the most important of all the Roman roads 

 and the first to be paved. It was the great south road (fig. 2) con- 

 necting Rome through Capua and Beneventum with Brundisium and 

 its seaport Hydruntum, in southeastern Italy on the Adriatic Sea. 

 The Via Appia began at the Porta Capena of the inner Servian Wall 

 of Rome, built in the reign of King Servius Tullius (578-5.'^4 B. C), 

 and led through the Porta Appia in the outer Aurelian Wall. The 

 distance from the Porta Capena to Capua was 132 English miles and 

 to Beneventum 164 English miles. At Beneventum the Via Appia 

 divided into two routes as far as Brundisium, thence it extended as 



