APPIA, VIA, a high road from Rome to Campania and lower Italy, constructed 312 B.C. by the censor Appius Claudius Caecus. It first ran only to Capua (132m.) but was prolonged to Beneven turn, Venusia, Tarentum and Brundisium, probably reaching the last-named place by 244 B.C. The original road was no doubt only gravelled (glares strata) ; in 298 B.C. a footpath was laid saxo quadrato from the Porta Capena of Rome to the temple of Mars, about Im. from the gate. Three years later, however, the whole road was paved with silex, from the temple to Bovillae, and in 191 B.C. the first mile from the gate to the temple was similarly treated. The first few miles are flanked by tombs, etc. (See L.
Canina, Via Appia, Rome, 1853.) To Terracina it was almost straight, with steep gradients in the Alban hills. Aricia still has one of its fine embankments. At Forum Appii it entered the Pomptine marshes; that this portion (19m. long, hence called Decennovium) belonged to the original road was proved by the discovery at Ad Medias (Mesa) of a milestone of about 25o B.C. A still older road ran along the foot of the Volscian mountains, past Cora, Norba and Setia; this served as the post road until the end of the 18th century. At the time of Strabo and Horace, however, it was the practice to travel by canal from Forum Appii to Lucus Feroniae; Nerva and Trajan paved the road and re paired the bridges in this section. Theodoric in A.D. 486 made similar repairs, but in the middle ages it was impassable and was only renewed by Pius VI. The older road crossed the back of the hill at the foot of which Terracina stands. Beyond Fundi it passed through the mountains to Formiae, thence by Minturnae and Sinuessa (towns of the Aurunci which had been conquered in 314 B.c.) to Capua.
Between Capua and Beneventum (32m.) the road passed near the defile of Caudium. (See CAUDINE FORKS.) The modern high road follows the ancient line, and three well-preserved bridges still serve it. The part from Rome to Beneventum is described by Sir R. Colt Hoare, Classical Tour through Italy, p. 57 seq. (Lon don, 1819). (See T. Ashby's Mélanges de l'Ecole Francaise de Rome [1903], p. 375 seq.) From Beneventum to Brundisium by the Via Appia, through Venusia and Tarentum, was 202m. Hardly any traces of the ancient road are now to be seen. A shorter route, more fitted for mule traffic, though Horace drove along part of it,' ran by Aequum Tuticum, Aecae, Herdoniae, Canusium, Barium and Gnatia; it was made into a main road by Trajan, and took the name Via Traiana. There are important remains of bridges along it. (See T. Ashby and R. Gardner, Papers, British School, Rome viii. [1916], 104 seq.) The original road between Beneventum and Aeclanum (15m.) was restored by Hadrian. Under Diocletian and Maximian a road (the Via Herculia) was made from Aequum Tuticum to Pons Aufidi near Venusia, where it crossed the Via Appia and went on into Lucania, through Poten tia and Grumentum, to join the Via Popilia near Nerulum. Though it must have lost much of its importance through the construction of the Via Traiana, the last portion from Tarentum to Brundisium was restored by Constantine about A.D. 315.
The Via Appia was the most famous of Roman roads; Statius calls it longarum regina viarum, the queen of long-distance roads. It was administered under the empire by a curator of praetorian rank, as were the other important roads of Italy. Milestones and other inscriptions about its repair are known.