THE PORTA CAPENA—THE VALLEY OF THE MUSES—BATHS OF CARACALLA—S. BALBINA—SS. NEREO AND ACHILLEO, SISTO, CESAREO—VIA LATINA—S. JOHN'S AND THE LATIN GATE—COLUMBARIA OF HYLAS AND VITALINE—TOMBS OF THE SCIPIOS AND CORNELIUS TACITUS—THE COLUMBARIA OF THE HOUSEHOLD OF CÆSAR—ARCH OF DRUSUS—PORTA APPIA—TOMBS OF GETA AND PRISCILLA—CHURCH OF DOMINE QUO VADIS—TOMB OF ANNIA REGILLA—CATACOMBS OF S. CALIXTUS AND HEBREWS—TEMPLE OF CERES AND FAUSTINA—VILLA OF HERODES ATTICUS—CATACOMBS OF DOMITILLA, SS. NEREUS AND ACHILLEUS—BASILICA OF PETRONILLA—CHURCH AND CATACOMBS OF S. SEBASTIANO—TOMB OF ROMULUS—CIRCUS OF MAXENTIUS—TOMB OF CECILIA METELLA—TOMBS, TEMPLES, AND VILLAS ON THE VIA APPIA—THE THREE TAVERNS—APPII FORUM.
THE APPIAN WAY.[17]
"The Queen of Roads."—Statius.
The Appian Way was the great southern road from Rome. It led through Capua to Brundusium, which then as now was the port for the East. It was first made as a regular roadway in B.C. 312. "The censorship of Appius Claudius and Caius Plautius for this year (A.U.C. 441) was remarkable; but the name of Appius has been handed down with more celebrity to posterity on account of his having made the road, called after him the Appian" (Livy, ix. 28). But a road existed here before this, for at least part of the way, evidently to Capua (A.U.C. 414). "They came in hostile array to the eighth stone on the road which is now the Appian" (Livy, vii. 39).
Statius gives some particulars as to how it was made. "First they cut two parallel furrows to indicate the width of the road, and then they cut down between those until they came to the hard bottom, and then began the levelling. As the construction proceeded, the road assumed a slightly convex shape. The middle or top was called the dorsum, or back-bone of the way; or, as it is called in Virgil, "in aggere viæ." Roads that were left in the rough material were said to be munitæ, but when covered with cut polygonal blocks they were called stratæ viæ."
Procopius, the secretary of Belisarius in the sixth century, thus describes the Appian Way:—"To traverse the Appian Way is a distance of five days' journey for a good walker; it leads from Rome to Capua. Its breadth is such that two chariots may meet upon it and pass each other without interruption; and its magnificence surpasses that of all other roads. In constructing this great work, Appius caused the materials to be brought from a great distance, so as to have all the stones hard, and of the nature of mill-stones, such as are not to be found in this part of the country. Having ordered this material to be smoothed and polished, the stones were cut in corresponding angles, so as to bite together in jointures without the intervention of copper or any other material to bind them; and in this manner they were so firmly united, that on looking at them we would say they had not been put together by art, but had grown so upon the spot. And, notwithstanding the wearing of so many ages, being traversed daily by a multitude of vehicles and all sorts of cattle, they still remain unmoved; nor can the least trace of ruin or waste be observed upon these stones, neither do they appear to have lost any of their beautiful polish. And such is the Appian Way."
The road was lined with temples, villas, and tombs; for it was the custom of the Romans to bury their dead on either side of the principal roads leading from the city. It was against the law to bury inside the walls, which was seldom permitted, and then only as a great honour.
"When thou hast gone out of the Capena Gate, and beholdest the sepulchres of the Colatini, of the Scipios, of the Servilii, and of the Metelli, canst thou deem the buried inmates wretched?" (Cicero).
Passing under the Arch of Constantine, down the Via Triumphalis (Via d' S. Gregorio), we turn to the left; passing a rope walk, the first gate on the left admits to a vineyard. The cottage is erected on the site of