Appian Way

(Latin "Via Appia"), most famous of the ancient Roman roads, built in 312 BC under Appius Claudius Caecus. It connected Rome with Capua and was later extended to Beneventum, Tarentum, and Brundisium. It was the chief highway to Greece and the East. Its total length was more than 350 miles. It was the first strand of what was to become a great web of paved highways throughout the whole Mediterranean world. There was nothing like it and without it Rome could not have won its tremendous empire. The use of cemented stone blocks has preserved it to the present day.

Roman roads were built so well that some are still in use today. They built their roads in this manner: from bottom to top they contained rubble, flat slabs in mortar, concrete and gravel, and tightly laid flat paving stones. Each road had its own curb (curb stones) and a drainage ditch.