ROMAN ROADS

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 13, 16 January 1926, Page 16

ROMAN ROADS

A KECOBD OF CONSTBTTCTION . WORK.

The Via Flaminia, the "great north : ipa.fi'" of ancient Rome, was built by GainJs Plamiiiiua during his censorship by ';230 8.C., to provide rapid means of cottinnnication between the C&pit'al and the citizen settlers with whom .the newly-conquered.'-'aigM-Gal-. UeUa" i£ the Po Valley was to he peopled; and to keep in touch -with both as a defence against gallic inroads and as a starting point tor 'future conquests^ Its great importance is shown by the fact that cyon under the late Republic (65 8.C.) it had a special curator (whereas the upkeep of the roafla was normally part of the censor's duties, and tho quratbres of particular roads, of whom p-e ;Eave -many inscriptions, seem to jjj&te•oiiiy from Claudius). 1n.2.7 B.C. Augustus::himaci]f took': charge of its restoration-. It was from this time on ♦^iediitly well kept up arid much frequented, .states Dr. Thomas Ashby in .lY,esp"sisian built tha .tiuJfiil in :the ;Fiu;lb Pas?,; Trajan and gadrlap,; as. well -as other-Emperors, undertook:, other repairs;, and as a re-sult,,-w^ find that .at about this time s&nie travellers from Gadcs (Cadiz), in' 'the soiith of.'.'Spain',." to the/baths of y«jarclTC:(J>6i IhapS" the ancient .Aquae iA,p(>lljn»rgßj,:;c'n;:the north' side of tho LakY of Bracciano, preferred to come ■by;-'fcndj;::andi;'f : urthery;preferred the S ria~Aemili» and the Via Flaminia -to th'etailKeiilt Eiviora coast route and the unhealthy Tuscan shore, or to'tho Apennine crossing between Bologna and" Florence..,.. These, travellers have left,a rqcprd of their journey in the shape; of four silver cups found at-these baths, with the itinerary from Cadiz to Kome, ahel ttc names and distances of. the post stations inscribed upon them. '

The A'ia -Flanunia, unlike the two road? of which we have spoken, is not able to maintain its straightricas. of lino for very long after leaving the Tiber Valley. It conies! into some heavy country among, the hills o.n .the right bajik,,and is in some places constrained 'to wind about- very considerably, so as to follow the water-shod deep ravines. It wae not possible aa .an the Yia.CJassia, which, though: it- runs only afewmiles further west, traverses quite different (volcanic) country, to meet the difficulties by the use of deep cuttings— on the Cassia thera is one as much as .60 feet deep in the descent to the crater Baccano. But the first really •sprious obstacle by which it-is confronted is the vali.eyvof the 'River Treia,-.which is subject to violent So&SZQns?ry>tj"bisfo; ,.o.i(ly .four years ■*g"£iSK7l£^ x *? iT,. the^modern bridge guefc^tosfo*' ..CKi** ,Cl*iSelana. -The ■valley is'la&oufc 1300 yards wide, and the drop in level to the bottom is ftbout 250 feet on the south, while the' ascent on the north side is some ISO feet. ;T;he dimcnlties were consideTable, .but have been very well dealt wi^ jwid the. causQwajsiahajbrA^Q ,3)J which the Roman engineers took the road paves the valjey form a splecflid .jftSjluMent. to-ttwsir.skill. ~~