The story of this place
Begun in 312 BC by censor Appius Claudius Caecus, the Via Appia was Rome's first great strategic highway, eventually linking the capital to Brindisi 560 km away. Its basalt paving stones, still visible outside the city, carried legions to conquest and merchants to the East. After crushing Spartacus's slave revolt in 71 BC, Crassus crucified 6,000 captured rebels along its length as a warning. Because Roman law forbade burials inside the city, the road became lined with tombs, mausoleums, and later the Christian catacombs of San Callisto and San Sebastiano. Walking its worn stones today, flanked by pines and ruined monuments, is to tread the same route as Caesar and St Paul.