The Ancient Appian Way

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The Ancient Appian Way
Type: siti archeologici
Period: Imperiale (Succeeding to the Republican period characterized by the monumental renovation Rome with superb residences (Domus Aurea) and magnificent buildings (Pantheon))

Address: Via Appia Antica
(Quartiere XX Ardeatino)
Known since antiquity as Regina Viarum, or the queen of roads, the Appian Way was the most famous of the Roman consular roads

Location and History

Was the first and most important of the great roads which the Romans built. The road was constructed in 312 BC by censor Appius Claudius, and originally connected Rome with the Alban Hills. Begins at Porta San Sebastiano and continues for nine kilometers, at times through open countryside with cluster pines and cultivated fields.

Description

The Ancient Appian Way is still lined with antique tombs, churches, catacombs, sepulchers and mausoleums. Some of these displayed much monumental greatness, as in the Tomb of Cecilia Metella, famous funeral monument, dating from the last decades of the ancient Roman Republic.