VIA APPIA. REGINA VIARUM
SERIAL CULTURAL HERITAGE
Nearly 10 years have passed since Paolo Rumiz embarked on his journey along the Via Appia, whose construction started in 312 B.C. based on an astonishing engineering design including bridges, viaducts, and tunnels across vast expanses of water and swamps, and through mountains for 500 km along an extremely rational route. This vital artery was notable for its innovative roadbed, designed for stability and drainage, as well as its pavements and regularly spaced post stations, which offered accommodations, small spas, and horse exchange points. Milestones were placed along the sides to mark distances on this road, conceived as a via publica, i.e., toll-free, then gradually extended from Rome to Brindisi. Yet, that was not the end of the journey. Indeed, it marked the first step towards the Mediterranean and the East. That world used to gaze toward a distant horizon – to our modern eyes, that world is now fading, obscured by wars and the shipwrecks of migrants denied salvation at sea. The Regina Viarum, as the poet Statius called it, still calls to be travelled 2,300 years later, longing to once again connect peoples and cultures.
NOT TO BE MISSED
“Quitting great Rome, Aricia welcomed first me in a sorry inn: Heliodorus, nursed in Greek and rhetoric, consorting me. To Forum Appii next. A den, to be detested, of brokers and sailors vile. We did this in two days, but rank and file More lightly laden do these two in one. The Appian way is not a dreary one.”
The most famous journey along the Via Appia is the one narrated by Horace in the 5th satire, Book 1. In the spring of 37 B.C., the poet accompanied Maecenas on a diplomatic mission on behalf of Octavian and narrated the adventures of their two-week expedition.
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“Ms. Letizia, I couldn’t have answered
the question you asked me last night and
explained the reason for my curiosity because,
even if we had been alone, I certainly wouldn’t
have been able to do so in that very moment, so
unexpectedly that question coming from your
mouth shook me up, and my colleague’s taunt
brought me back to reality.”
and found on a lead pipe buried under the Doric Tomb in 1999.
A 500 km straight line that cuts across Italy in the most rational way possible, travelled by merchants, armies, and adventurers for as long as 2,300 years. This is the Via Appia. So many stories have played out on its stones – the History made by politicians, economists, and conquerors, and the personal history of all those who have walked this road and made it a part of their lives over the centuries. The small church of Domine Quo Vadis marks the spot where, according to Christian tradition, the Apostle Peter fleeing persecution had a vision of Jesus. “Lord, where are you going?” Peter asks. “I am going to Rome to be crucified again,” Jesus replies. Peter then understands that his destiny is to face martyrdom in the name of his faith. In 71 B.C., the Roman army defeated Spartacus and his army of 6,000 rebellious slaves – all of them were crucified along the Via Appia, one every 35 meters across 200 km from Capua to Rome. At the 35th mile, near Cisterna di Latina, the remains of one of the post stations that stood at regular intervals on the Appian Way are visible; they were sorts of roadside inns ahead of their time, where horses would be changed, dust and tiredness could be shaken off in small spas, meals were served, and a room could be taken for sleeping. At Tre Taverne post, where the Via Appia entered the Pontine Marshes, St Paul on his way to Rome was greeted by a group of Roman Christians who had come to meet him: “After three months, we set sail in a ship of Alexandria which had wintered in the island, whose figurehead was ‘The Twin Brothers’. Touching at Syracuse, we stayed there three days. From there we circled around and arrived at Rhegium. After one day, a south wind sprang up, and on the second day we came to Puteoli, where we found brothers, and were entreated to stay with them for seven days. So we came to Rome. From there the brothers, when they heard of us, came to meet us as far as The Market of Appius and the Three Taverns. When Paul saw them, he thanked God and took courage” (Acts, 28:15). This is not just about ancient history: in 1999, excavations along the initial stretch near the Doric Tomb revealed two lead cylinders bearing the date of 30 September 1929. Inside were some photographs and letters about the love affair of Ugo, a married man, and Letizia, a young unmarried woman. They were colleagues and their letters, spanning three years, recount a passion as intense as it was unacceptable to the society of the time. This ill-fated affair was sealed in a time capsule and hidden in a place that perhaps held significance for them. Since their discovery, the letters of Ugo and Letizia are preserved in a display case at the Capo di Bove Archaeological Complex, near the spot where they were found.
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READING RECOMMENDATIONS
Reading suggestions to learn everything about Via Appia.
- Satira I.5, Quintus Horatius Flaccus (1st century B.C.). In Satire I.5, Horace describes the Iter Brundisinum, the journey he made from Rome to Brindisi in 37 B.C. along with the poet Virgil, Maecenas, and other outstanding characters.
- Silva II.2, Publius Papinius Statius (1st century A.D.). Statius coined the expression “Regina Viarum” for the Via Appia, in verse 12 of Silvae II.2.
- Corinne or Italy, Madame de Staël (1807). Madame de Staël was the daughter of the minister of finance of King Louis XVI of France. The writer and socialite, authored what is considered the first novel of 19th-century women’s literature, a work inspired by her own life. The protagonist of Corinne, visits the Via Appia with her lover: “She led him through the gates to the old Appian Way, whose traces are marked in the heart of the country by ruins on the right and left, for many miles beyond the walls”.
- Pictures from Italy, Charles Dickens (1846). When Dickens visited Italy with his family, he was already a renowned novelist. In 1845, he was in Rome and had the chance to walk along the Via Appia: “One day, we walked out, a little party of three, to Albano, fourteen miles distant; possessed by a great desire to go there, by the ancient Appian way, long since ruined and overgrown. We started at half-past seven in the morning, and within an hour or so, were out upon the open Campagna. For twelve miles, we went climbing on, over an unbroken succession of mounds, and heaps, and hills, of ruin”.
- Dinanzi alle terme di Caracalla, Giosuè Carducci (1877). One of the best-known Barbarian Odes, written in April 1877, closes with an image of the Via Appia: “Febbre, m’ascolta. Gli uomini novelli / quinci respingi e lor picciole cose: / religioso è questo orror: la dea/ Roma qui dorme. / Poggiata il capo al Palatino augusto, / tra ‘l Celio aperte e l’Aventin le braccia, / per la Capena i forti omeri stende / a l’Appia via”.
- Egle, Giosuè Carducci (1892). Another poem from Carducci’s Barbarian Odes paints a beautiful portrait of the Via Appia in winter: “Stanno nel grigio verno pur d’edra e di lauro vestite / ne l’Appia trista le ruinose tombe. / Passan pe ’l ciel turchino che stilla ancor da la pioggia / avanti al sole lucide nubi bianche”.
- Rome, Émile Zola (1896). The French writer arrived in Rome in 1894 and stayed for several weeks. It was when Rome the second novel in The Three Cities trilogy was born. Zola expresses his admiration for the Via Appia through the words of Pierre Froment, the young abbot and protagonist of the book experiencing a sense of awe in that place: “Ah! that Appian Way, that ancient queen of the high roads, crossing the Campagna in a long straight line with rows of proud tombs on either hand – to Pierre it seemed like a triumphant prolongation of the Palatine. He there found the same passion for splendour and domination, the same craving to eternise the memory of Roman greatness in marble and daylight”.
- Appia. The Long Road From Rome, Paolo Rumiz (2016). In June 2015, Rumiz completed a series of trips along the Via Appia with Riccardo Carnovalini, a professional trekker, Alessandro Scillitani, filmmaker, and Irene Zambon, architect. The journey was first recounted in episodes in the daily newspaper La Repubblica, and later collected to help the work of a technical committee especially set up for the recovery and enhancement of the queen of all roads.
Children’s books:
- Gli esploratori dell’Appia perduta, Gud (2020). Emperors, popes, directors, the best-off – among the millions who have travelled the Via Appia throughout its millennial history, someone may have lost a treasure. The three friends protagonists of this comic strip are determined to find it.
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