sula. insula. islands which lie off the coast of Latium; these form a group to the number of three, distant about twenty miles to the south of the Circeian promontory. The nearest to the land is Sinonia, now Senone; (Mel. II. Sinonia in7. Plin. III. 5.) Palmaria, now Palmaruola, is more Palmaria to the west. But the island of Pontia, Ponza, was the Pontia inmost considerable, as well as the most populous. (Strab. sula. V. 234.) From Livy we learn that it received a Roman colony A. U. C. 441. (IX. 38. Diod. Sic. XIX.) and that it obtained the thanks of the Roman senate for its zeal and fidelity in the second Punic war. It became afterwards the spot to which the victims of Tiberius and Caligula were secretly conveyed, to be afterwards despatched, or doomed to a perpetual exile: (Suet. Tib. 54. Cal. 15.) among these might be numbered many Christian martyrs. centre. ROMAN WAYS. In describing the different roads which traversed Latium, I shall notice them in their order as they severally branched off from Rome, their common The first is the Via Ostiensis, which, as its name sufficiently implies, led to Ostia, commencing at the Porta Trigemina; or, if we take a later period, at the Porta Ostiensis, now Porta S. Paolo b. The distance, according to the Itineraries, being The Via Laurentina branched off from this road about two miles from Rome, and terminated at Lau b Vulp. Vet. Lat. 1. xi. c. 5. Nibby, delle vie degli Ant. p. 131. rentum. We have no account of this Roman way in the Itineraries, but we are informed of its existence from Ovid: Est via, quæ populum Laurentes ducit in agros, Dardanio quondam regna petita duci. FAST. II. 679. and its direction has been accurately traced by Holstenius and Vulpius . The next road is the Via Ardeatina, which evidently was intended to establish a communication with Ardea, distant, as we have seen, about twenty miles from Rome. The only author by whom it is mentioned is Festus, who quotes Cato. (v. Retricibus.) We are assured, however, by Vulpius and others, that the track of the Via Ardeatina is still apparent, and that it branched off again into the Appian way. This crossroad is thought by some to be the Via Numicii, of which Horace speaks d. (I. Ep. 18.) Ambigitur quid enim? Castor sciat an Docilis plus; But it is now understood that this route, of which I shall have again occasion to speak, lay in quite a different direction. I may here observe, that there was also a road which followed the line of the coast from Ostia to Tarracina, it was called Severiana, having been constructed, or more probably repaired, by order of the emperor Severus, as we learn from ancient inscriptions". The distances are thus given in the Table. © Adnot. p. 173. Vulp. Vet. Lat. 1. x. c. 2. d Vulp. Vet. Lat. 1. ix. c. 6. e Id. 1. ix. p. 226. The Appian way was the most celebrated of the Roman roads, both on account of its length and the difficulties which it was necessary to overcome in its construction. It was made, as Livy informs us, (IX. 29.) by the censor Appius Cæcus, A. U. C. 442. and in the first instance was only laid down as far as Capua, a distance of about a thousand stadia, or an hundred and twenty-five miles; but even this portion of the work, according to the account of Diodorus Siculus, was executed in so expensive a manner, that it exhausted the public treasury. (Diod. Sic. V.) From Capua it was subsequently carried on to Beneventum, and finally to Brundusium, when this port became the great place of resort for those who were desirous of crossing over into Greece and Asia Minor. (Strab. VI. 283.) This latter part of the Appian way is supposed to have been constructed by the consul f This number should be VI. App. Claudius Pulcher, grandson of Cæcus, A. U. C. 504. and to have been completed by another consul of the same family thirty-six years after. We find frequent mention made of repairs done to this road, by the Roman emperors, and more particularly by Trajan, both in the histories of the time and also in ancient inscriptions, some of which have already been noticed in describing the Pontine marshes. This road seems to have been still in excellent order in the time of Procopius, who gives a very good account of the manner in which it was constructed. He says, " An expeditious traveller might 66 66 66 very well perform the journey from Rome to Ca66 pua in five days. Its breadth is such as to admit "of two carriages passing each other. Above all "others, this way is worthy of notice: for the stones "which were employed on it are of an extremely “hard nature, and were doubtless conveyed by Ap"pius from some distant quarry, as the adjoining country furnishes none of that kind. These, when they had been cut smooth and squared, he fitted together closely without using iron or any other "substance; and they adhere so firmly to each other, "that they appear to have been thus formed by na"ture, and not cemented by art. And though they "have been travelled over by so many beasts of "burden and carriages for ages, yet they do not seem "to have been any wise moved from their place, or broken, nor to have lost any part of their original smoothness." (Procop. Bell. Got. III.) 66 66 I shall now proceed to detail the stations and distances on this route, as far as it extended through Latium to the borders of Campania, according to the Itinerary of Antoninus and that of Jerusalem. The next road which presents itself to our notice is the Via Latina, which has been already alluded to more than once. It commenced at the Porta Capena, and fell into the Via Appia at Beneventum. Of its formation we have no account, but it was certainly of great antiquity, and existed probably before 8 This number should be VII. At the Tres Tabernæ a road branched off to the left, leading to Antium, while to the right it extended to Velitræ. Holsten. Adnot. p. 210. h Read XVI. i This station is the same as Bovillæ in the Table. k Between Aricia and this station another intervenes in the Table under the name of Sub-Lanuvio, marking apparently the proximity of the road to the city of Lanuvium. |