All Roads Lead to Rome: The History of the Appian Way

The modern world has the ancient Romans to thank for the origins of many modern technologies, conveniences, and ideas such as running water, baths, and republican style of government, but roads are another influence the Romans have had on the modern world that are often taken for granted. Although Roman roads may not have attained the glamorous status of other inventions, their influence is just as profound. Roads provide essential communication and transport lines for any country - they are the veins and arteries that move the life-blood of trade and peoples that make a country thrive. Indeed, throughout the hundreds of years when Rome was ascendant in the ancient world, the roads they built held together first their republic and then their empire into a cohesive unit. Many of these roads were important, but one road stands above all others: the Appian Way (or Via Appia as it was called in the Latin spoken by the Romans). Since the Appian Way was first built in 312 BC, it has inspired