ock was cut away
perpendicularly for a height of 120 ft. to allow the road to pass.
Beyond Fundi it passed through the mountains to Formiae, the engineering
of the road being noteworthy; and thence by Minturnae and Sinuessa
(towns of the Aurunci which had been conquered in 314 B.C.)[1] to Capua.
The remains of the road in this first portion are particularly striking.

Between Capua and Beneventum, a distance of 32 m., the road passed near
the defile of Caudium (see CAUDINE FORKS). The modern highroad follows
the ancient line, and remains of the latter, with the exception of three
well-preserved bridges, which still serve for the modern highroad, are
conspicuous by their absence. The portion of the road from Rome to
Beneventum is described by Sir R. Colt Hoare, _Classical Tour through
Italy_, 57 seq. (London, 1819). He was accompanied on his journey, made
in 1789, by the artist Carlo Labruzzi, who executed a series of 226
drawings, the greater part of which have not been published; they are
described by T. Ashby in _Melanges de l'Ecole Francaise de Rome_ (1903),
p. 375 seq., and _Atti del Congresso Internazionale per le Scienze
Storiche_, vol. v. (Rome, 1904), p. 125 seq.

From Beneventum to Brundusium by the Via Appia, through Venusia and
Tarentum, was 202 m. A shorter route, but more fitted for mule traffic,
though Horace drove along part of it,[2] ran by Aequum Tuticum, Aecae,
Herdoniae, Canusium, Barium, and Gnatia (Strabo vi. 282); it was made
into a main road by Trajan, and took the name Via Traiana. The original
road, too, adopted in imperial times a more devious but easier route by
Aeclanum instead of by Trevicum. This was restored by Hadrian for the 15
m. between Beneventum and Aeclanum. Under Diocletian and Maximian a road
(the Via Herculia) was constructed from Aequum Tuticum to Pons Aufidi
near Venusia, where it crossed the Via Appia and went on into Lucania,
passing through Potentia and Grumentum, and joining the Via Popilia near
Nerulum. Though it must have lost much of its importance through the
construction of the Via Traiana, the last portion from Tarentum to
Brundusium was restored by Constantine about A.D. 315.

The Via Appia was the most famous of Roman roads; Statius, _Silvae_,
ii. 2. 12, calls it _longarum regina viarum_. It was administered
under the empire by a curator of praetorian rank, as were the other
important roads of Italy. A large number of milestones and other
inscriptions re