Opened in 312 b. C. by the censor Appio
Claudius, during the Sannite wars, in order to join
Rome "caput mundi" with the southern provinces
of the peninsula, with Africa and the East. It became
in short time the elected road, sacred to the cult of
the dead, crossed during the Latin holidays by the crowd
going to the temple of Giove on the summit of mount
Cavo or to the temple of Diana, by the shores of the
Nemi lake. The Appian way ran here straight -after this
the name of " recto " - at first followed
the line of an existing road to the Alban hills and
reached the Agro Pontino. After the Appio Forum it touched
the city of Terracina and it continued for Fondi until
Capua.
Some year later it was extended via Benevento
and Venosa, native land of Orazio, and a century later
to Taranto and Brindisi. In the first years of II the
century A.D. the emperor Traiano added his name to the
road. With the New Appian Traian Way it was possible
to go from Rome to Brindisi in 13/14 days with a total
distance of 540 kilometres. The road was approximately
4.15 meters wide, enough to permit the transit of two
chariots at the same time. Two sidewalks in earth delimited
by stone flanked the track. Every 10/13 km in the most
busy sections were aligned along the road the so-called
"stations" for the change of the horses and
" taberne ", which offered refreshments and
lodging for travellers.
The construction was extremely
difficult , was realized solving natural difficulties
with an amazingly modern plan of conception which made
of it a solid, rational road with easy access. Bridges
across the rivers were built, valleys filled, heights
flattened, channels dug, banks raised in order to contain
waters of the rivers, it was covered with blocks of
hard basalt that still today emerge from the road. After
the fall of the empire and barbarian invasions the road
fell into decay and was abandoned. The monuments were
sacked and lost their works of art and decorations; Grass
grew wildly upon the road which slowly disappeared from
sight. Columns, marbles, statues, friezes, relieves
started to embellish the new buildings of the City,
the new Christian basilicas and noble castles.
Towards
the half of the ' 700 historians started to dig discovering
important works and collecting fragments. The first
Christian cemeteries rose along the Appian Way at the
end of the I century: along this road the most important
necropolis were discovered, the Catacombs of S. Callisto,
going back to the II sec., and those of S. Sebastian,
in which were housed for a while the bodies of the two
Apostles of the Roman Church: Peter and Paul. The history
has confirmed that the Apostle entered in the city walking
along the Appian Way.
The most interesting section of
the Appian Way goes from the tomb of Cecilia Metella
to Casal Rotondo, approximately km. 4,500 long: marble
ruins, relieves or broken statues, other ruins covered
by grass, along the road flanked by high pine trees
and cypresses of the Campagna Romana; on a side run
the arches of a Roman aqueduct, at the horizon emerges
the profile of the Roman Castles and towards the sea
the plain, a sight out of time that has fascinated many
great poets, from Orazio to Ovid, Goethe, Byron, Carducci,
D'Annunzio
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