VIA APPIA — ROSE 351 



a single route to Hydrimtum in southern Italy. The longest, the 

 carriage route, covered 235 English miles and extended through Ve- 

 nusia and Tarentum. The shorter route, a bridle road, adapted to 

 mule traffic, although Horace drove along part of it, passed through 

 Equustuticus. Its length from Beneventum to Hydruntum was 216 

 English miles. Thus, the total length of the Via Appia, from the 

 Porta Gapena at Rome to Hydruntum on the Adriatic Sea was 412 

 English miles by the long route and 380 English miles by the short 

 route {6). 



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

 because it led toward the fabulously wealthy regions of the East, in 

 the direction of which there extended three main routes (7), from the 

 harbor of Hydruntum, by: 



1. Circumnavigating the Peloponnessus, or Grecian peninsula, and 

 sailing directly for the Eastern ports by way of the Mediterranean 

 Sea. 



2. Boat to Lechaeon, the western harbor of Corinth, thence cross- 

 ing the isthmus to the eastern harbor of Corinth at Cenchreae, and 

 reembarking for places farther east. 



3. Ship to Dyrrachium on the opposite coast of the Adriatic Sea 

 and thence overland on the great Egnatian Road, through Macedonia 

 and Thrace, to Byzantium. From Calcedonia, on the opposite shore 

 from Byzantium, the road extended through Asia Minor, Syria, and 

 Palestine across the Isthmus of Suez, through Egypt into Ethiopia 

 in Africa, where the Romans are said to have gained their knowledge 

 of paved roads from the Carthaginians. 



ROADS WERE PREEMINENT AMONG ROMAN PUBLIC WORKS 



The public roads ranked preeminent among the works of Roman 

 magnificence. Untold amounts of wealth and labor were spent in 

 their construction and only officials of the highest rank were consid- 

 ered worthy to be entrusted with the direction of the work on the 

 important roads radiating from the heart of the Republic, or Empire, 

 at Rome. During the Republic, the greatest men were made respon- 

 sible for these highways, and during the Empire, Augustus himself 

 assumed charge of the roads. Thus the roads, bridges, and other pub- 

 lic works assumed quasi-religious significance because the Oriental 

 subjects in the Roman population considered them as works of a 

 semidivine ruler or his agents. As a result of this Caesar worship, 

 there arose also in Italy shrines not to Augustus Caesar but to the 

 " genius " of Augustus. It should be added, however, that except for 

 the Orientals in the Empire of the West, this worship remained to 

 the end only a lip service. 



