PREFACE. xxiii 



faster had he chosen to do so is proved by other journeys 

 that were undertaken by the Romans. Caesar posted lOO 

 miles a day, Tiberius travelled 200 miles in twenty-four 

 hours, and Statins speaks of a man leaving Rome in the 

 morning and being at Baiae, 127 miles, before night. In fact, 

 Horace says himself : 



Have but the will, be sure you'll find the way. 

 What shall stop him who starts at break of day 

 From sleeping Rome, and on the Lucrine sails 

 Before the sunshine into twilight pales ? 



The Roman emperors at a later period were induced to 

 establish throughout their extensive dominions a regular 

 service of posts. Houses were erected at a distance of only 

 five or six miles ; each of them was constantly provided with 

 forty horses, and by the help of these relays it was easy to 

 travel a hundred miles in a day along the Roman roads. 



Although the Appian Way was never destroyed, it was 

 covered up, until the reign of Pius IX., beyond the tomb of 

 Csecilia Metella, and between the third and eleventh mile, 

 Murray says that it was almost confounded with the sur- 

 rounding Campagna, and was only marked out by the long 

 line of ruined sepulchres which form such picturesque objects 

 in that solitary waste. The work of restoration and excava- 

 tion was commenced in 1850 and completed in 1853, and yet 

 the whole cost of reopening the Appian Way did not exceed 

 ;^30oo ; this included the removal of several feet of earth and 

 rubbish that had accumulated during very many centuries. 

 A wall was also built on either side of it to protect the 

 monuments. 



Some doubts have been thrown upon the antiquity of the 

 top covering or surface of the road, which Murray tells us is 

 formed of polygonal blocks of lava, probably from Vesuvius, 

 and by some it is supposed that the causeway over which 

 Horace, Virgil, Augustus, and Germanicus travelled on their 

 way to Brundusium, will one day be discovered beneath these 

 blocks of lava, which some suppose to be the work of people 

 living in the Middle Ages. However this may be, we must 



