The ‘Queen of Roads’

The Romans were extraordinary road builders. Before the 4th century BC, many roads were poorly-maintained, meandering tracks connecting villages and towns. But Rome required a more efficient transportation network, a more effective means of deploying and supplying its armies, so Roman architects and engineers got to work.

They designed highways – long and straight – for the first time without regard for the type of terrain that would be encountered. And then they engineered bridges and tunnels so their roads could cross rivers and carve through mountains.

And the roads were of robust construction. A base layer of gravel or rock was laid into a deep trench; this was then covered with a layer of finer gravel, before slabs of stone – often basalt – were laid on top (and cambered towards the edges to allow for water runoff).

The standard road width was 14 Roman feet (about 4.5 metres), enough to allow two carriages travelling in opposite directions to pass. Wide hard-packed earth footpaths, edged with stone, flanked the sides of the carriageway. Regular ‘post-stations’ along the way allowed travellers to rest and change the horses. And maintenance workers were assigned responsibility for particular sections of the road. In all, the Romans built 120,000 kilometres of highways.

The first of these, the Via Appia, was constructed – in exactly this way – in 312 BC. Hard to believe, isn’t it? Known as the ‘Queen of Roads’, the Via Appia stretched from Rome, 196 kilometres south to Capua. Much of the road still exists today, including sections with the original stones laid by the Romans 2300 years ago. Now’s that engineering that has stood the test of time.

Today the start of the Via Appia Antica (the Ancient Appian Way) is about six kilometres from the centre of Rome

You can walk as far along the road as you choose to; the little 'info point' at the start provides a map with information about what you'll see as you go

Via Appia Antica is still a designated road, so in those sections where there's no longer a footpath you have to be on the lookout for cars

Heading south the Basilica of Saint Sebastian (4th century) is one of the first significant buildings you pass

Further along is the 'Circus', a huge arena where up to 10,000 spectators watched chariot races

What remains of the little church of San Nicola

In this section of the Via Appia you can clearly see a wheel rut created by centuries of carriage traffic

Even today there are places along the road where weary travellers can rest and refresh; we had lunch in this lovely garden

The Tomb of Cecilia Metella, erected around 50 BC

In the Middle Ages, the tomb was transformed into a watch tower and a fort was built alongside it

Finally, at the beginning of the 14th century the fort was remodelled into the Castello dei Caetani

Materials and objects collected over hundreds of years from along the Via Appia have been displayed here

Below the road there are kilometres of catacombs where early Christians buried their dead

In the Forum in Rome there was a monument called the Millarium Aureum; it was the point from which all roads were said to begin and from where official distances were measured

That's where the saying 'all roads lead to Rome' comes from, and when the Via Appia was built, most of them did