Rome, Appian Way - 08

by AM FineArtPrints

Title

Rome, Appian Way - 08

Artist

AM FineArtPrints

Medium

Painting - Painting

Description

Rome, Appian Way - 08 by Andrea Mazzocchetti

The Appian Way was a Roman road that connected Rome to Brundisium (Brindisi), one of the most important ports of ancient Italy, a port from which the trade routes for Greece and the Orient began. The Appia, considered by the Romans the queen viarum (queen of roads), is universally considered, in consideration of the era in which it was built (late IV - III century BC), one of the greatest engineering works of the ancient world for the enormous economic, military and cultural impact it had on Roman society.
Large stretches of the road, particularly in the suburbs of the city of Rome, are still preserved and passable as well as a destination for archaeological tourism.

Construction work began in 312 BC at the behest of the censor Appio Claudio Cieco (Appius Claudius Caecus, an important exponent of the gens Claudia), who restructured and extended a pre-existing road linking Rome to the Alban Hills [2], extending it to Capua, which had been under Roman control for some years . In the middle of the III century B.C. the route was extended to Maleventum, where Roman colonists had recently been deducted, which at the same time changed its name to Beneventum (Benevento). The construction work continued during the second half of the third century. a.C., when Tarentum was reached (Taranto), and then up to about 190 B.C., when the route to the port of Brundisium (Brindisi) was completed.

The primary function of the track was to ensure a rapid movement of the troops towards southern Italy, in order to consolidate the dominion of Rome on that part of the peninsula. However, it became a fundamental trade route from the outset, facilitating the influx of highly crafted products into the city of Magna Graecia. Moreover, the shortening of travel time between Rome and the great centers of the South as well as the greater comfort and safety of the route soon determined a great opening of the wealthy classes of Roman society towards Greek culture: in the decades following the construction of the road they gradually spread in Rome the theater and the knowledge of the Greek language and the appreciation for the art and the Hellenic literature grew; new philosophical (Pythagorean) and religious doctrines spread among the Romans.

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January 15th, 2019

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