A Smaller Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities - William Smith

VIA, a public road. It was not until the period of the long protracted Samnite wars that the necessity was felt of securing a safe communication between the city and the legions, and then for the first time we hear of those famous paved roads, which, in after ages, connected Rome with her most distant provinces, constituting the most lasting of all her works. The excellence of the principles upon which they were constructed is sufficiently attested by their extraordinary durability, many specimens being found in the country around Rome which have been used without being repaired for more than a thousand years. The Romans are said to have adopted their first ideas upon this subject from the Carthaginians, and it is extremely probable that the latter people may, from their commercial activity and the sandy nature of their soil, have been compelled to turn their attention to the best means of facilitating the conveyance of merchandise to different parts of their territory. The first great public road made by the Romans was the Via Appia, which extended in the first instance from Rome to Capua, and was made in the censorship of Appius Claudius Caecus (B.C. 312.) The general construction of a Roman road was as follows:—In the first place, two shallow trenches (sulci) were dug parallel to each other, marking the breadth of the proposed road; this in the great lines is found to have been from 13 to 15 feet. The loose earth between the sulci was then removed, and the excavation continued until a solid foundation (gremium) was reached, upon which the materials of the road might firmly rest; if this could not be attained, in consequence of the swampy nature of the ground or from any peculiarity in the soil, a basis was formed artificially by driving piles (fistucationibus). Above the gremium were four distinct strata. The lowest course was the statumen, consisting of stones not smaller than the hand could just grasp; above the statumen was the rudus, a mass of broken stones cemented with lime, (what masons call rubble-work,) rammed down hard, and nine inches thick; above the rudus came the nucleus, composed of fragments of bricks and pottery, the pieces being smaller than in the rudus, cemented with lime, and six inches thick. Uppermost was the pavimentum, large polygonal blocks of the hardest stone (silex), usually, at least in the vicinity of Rome, basaltic lava, irregular in form, but fitted and jointed with the greatest nicety, so as to present a perfectly even surface, as free from gaps or irregularities as if the whole had been one solid mass. The general aspect will be understood from the cut given below.

Street at the entrance of Pompeii.

The centre of the way was a little elevated, so as to permit the water to run off easily. Occasionally, at least in cities, rectangular slabs of softer stone were employed instead of the irregular polygons of silex, and hence the distinction between the phrases silice sternere and saxo quadrato sternere. Nor was this all. Regular foot-paths (margines, crepidines, umbones) were raised upon each side and strewed with gravel, the different parts were strengthened and bound together with gomphi or stone wedges, and stone blocks were set up at moderate intervals on the side of the foot-paths, in order that travellers on horseback might be able to mount without assistance. Finally, Caius Gracchus erected mile-stones along the whole extent of the great highways, marking the distances from Rome, which appear to have been counted from the gate at which each road issued forth, and Augustus, when appointed inspector of the viae around the city, erected in the forum a gilded column (milliarium aureum), on which were inscribed the distances of the principal points to which the viae conducted. During the earlier ages of the republic the construction and general superintendence of the roads without, and the streets within the city, were committed like all other important works to the censors. These duties, when no censors were in office, devolved upon the consuls, and in their absence on the praetor urbanus, the aediles, or such persons as the senate thought fit to appoint. There were also under the republic four officers, called quatuorviri viarum, for superintending the streets within the city, and two called curatores viarum, for superintending the roads without. Under the empire the curatores viarum were officers of high rank. The chief roads which issued from Rome are:—1. The Via Appia, the Great South Road. It issued from the Porta Capena, and passing through Aricia, Tres Tabernae, Appii Forum, Tarracina, Fundi, Formiae, Minturnae, Sinuessa, and Carilinum, terminated at Capua, but was eventually extended through Calatia and Caudium to Beneventum, and finally from thence through Venusia, Tarentum, and Uria, to Brundusium.—2. The Via Latina, from the Porta Capena, another great line leading to Beneventum, but keeping a course farther inland than the Via Appia. Soon after leaving the city it sent off a short branch (Via Tusculana) to Tusculum, and passing through Compitum Anaginum, Ferentinum, Frusino, Fregellae, Fabrateria, Aquinum, Casinum, Venafrum, Teanum, Allifae, and Telesia, joined the Via Appia at Beneventum. A cross-road called the Via Hadriana, running from Minturnae through Suessa Aurunca to Teanum, connected the Via Appia with the Via Latina.—3. From the Porta Esquilina issued the Via Labicana, which passing Labicum fell into the Via Latina at the station ad Bivium, 30 miles from Rome.—4. The Via Praenestina, originally the Via Gabina, issued from the same gate with the former. Passing through Gabii and Praeneste, it joined the Via Latina just below Anagnia.—5. The Via Tiburtina, which issued from the Porta Tiburtina, and proceeding N. E. to Tibur, a distance of about 20 miles, was continued from thence, in the same direction, under the name of the Via Valeria, and traversing the country of the Sabines passed through Carseoli and Corfinium to Aternum on the Adriatic, thence to Adria, and so along the coast to Castrum Truentinum, where it fell into the Via Salaria.—6. The Via Nomentana, anciently Ficulnensis, ran from the Porta Collina, crossed the Anio to Nomentum, and a little beyond fell into the Via Salaria at Eretum.—7. The Via Salaria, also from the Porta Collina (passing Fidenae and Crustumerium) ran north and east through Sabinum and Picenum to Reate and Asculum Picenum. At Castrum Truentinum it reached the coast, which it followed until it joined the Via Flaminia at Ancona.—8. The Via Flaminia, the Great North Road, carried ultimately to Ariminum. It issued from the Porta Flaminia, and proceeded nearly north to Ocriculum and Narnia in Umbria. Here a branch struck off, making a sweep to the east through Interamna and Spoletium, and fell again into the main trunk (which passed through Mevania) at Fulginia. It continued through Fanum Flaminii and Nuceria, where it again divided, one line running nearly straight to Fanum Fortunae on the Adriatic, while the other diverging to Ancona continued from thence along the coast to Fanum Fortunae, where the two branches uniting passed on to Ariminum through Pisaurum. From thence the Via Flaminia was extended under the name of the Via Aemilia, and traversed the heart of Cisalpine Gaul through Bononia, Mutina, Parma, Placentia (where it crossed the Po), to Mediolanum.—9. The Via Aurelia, the Great Coast Road, issued originally from the Porta Janiculensis, and subsequently from the Porta Aurelia. It reached the coast at Alsium, and followed the shore of the lower sea along Etruria and Liguria by Genoa as far as Forum Julii in Gaul. In the first instance it extended no farther than Pisa.—10. The Via Portuensis kept the right bank of the Tiber to Portus Augusti.—11. The Via Ostiensis originally passed through the Porta Trigemina, afterwards through the Porta Ostiensis, and kept the left bank of the Tiber to Ostia. From thence it was continued under the name of Via Severiana along the coast southward through Laurentum, Antium, and Circaei, till it joined the Via Appia at Tarracina. The Via Laurentina, leading direct to Laurentum, seems to have branched off from the Via Ostiensis at a short distance from Rome.—12. The Via Ardeatina from Rome to Ardea. According to some this branched off from the Via Appia, and thus the circuit of the city is completed.

VĬĀTĬCUM is, properly speaking, everything necessary for a person setting out on a journey, and thus comprehends money, provisions, dresses, vessels, &c. When a Roman magistrate, praetor, proconsul, or quaestor went to his province, the state provided him with all that was necessary for his journey. But as the state in this, as in most other cases of expenditure, preferred paying a sum at once to having any part in the actual business, it engaged contractors (redemptores), who for a stipulated sum had to provide the magistrates with the viaticum, the principal parts of which appear to have been beasts of burden and tents (muli et tabernacula). Augustus introduced some modification of this system, as he once for all fixed a certain sum to be given to the proconsuls (probably to other provincial magistrates also) on setting out for their provinces, so that the redemptores had no more to do with it.

VĬĀTOR, a servant who attended upon and executed the commands of certain Roman magistrates, to whom he bore the same relation as the lictor did to other magistrates. The name viatores was derived from the circumstance of their being chiefly employed on messages either to call upon senators to attend the meeting of the senate, or to summon people to the comitia, &c. In the earlier times of the republic we find viatores as ministers of such magistrates also as had their lictors: viatores of a dictator and of the consuls are mentioned by Livy. In later times, however, viatores are only mentioned with such magistrates as had only potestas and not imperium, such as the tribunes of the people, the censors, and the aediles.

VICTIMA. [[Sacrificium].]

VĪCĒSĬMA, a tax of five per cent. Every Roman, when he manumitted a slave, had to pay to the state a tax of one-twentieth of his value, whence the tax was called vicesima manumissionis. This tax was first imposed by the Lex Manlia (B.C. 357), and was not abolished when all other imposts were done away with in Rome and Italy. A tax called vicesima hereditatum et legatorum was introduced by Augustus (Lex Julia Vicesimaria): it consisted of five per cent., which every Roman citizen had to pay to the aerarium militare, upon any inheritance or legacy left to him, with the exception of such as were left to a citizen by his nearest relatives, and such as did not amount to above a certain sum. It was levied in Italy and the provinces by procuratores appointed for the purpose.