Show Notes
All roads lead to Rome, and this week we’ll be exploring the first road that led to Rome, The Via Appia. This 563km long early highway would put Rome on the map and pave the way for the Roman Empire.
The Via Appia, also known as The Appian Way, was first constructed between 312 and 264 BCE as a response to the first Samnite War leading to the decimation of Capua, who had offered themselves up to Rome in exchange for protection. Unfortunately that offer of protection was moot, with Capua being too great a distance away. The Roman censor Appius Cladius would leverage his influence and power over Rome’s treasury to secure the 259 million Sestertius required to construct the highway. While highly controversial at the time, 174 million Sestertius would be transported to Rome on the road annually, paying for itself in just a year and a half.
Romans famously built their roads without curves, and without modern surveying methods the Romans would need to employ some impressive mathematics to plan this gargantuan undertaking, which John describes as “basic trigonometry played out on a frustratingly large scale.” Much has changed in how we plan roads, but surprisingly little has changed in how we build the roads themselves since the Via Appia was first constructed over 2000 years ago. While the highway in its original form no longer exists, having been disassembled and its materials repurposed after the fall of Rome, a small portion still exists today as a tourist destination.
What is Measured in Metric?
Civilization and the world around us, from the monuments that astound us to the mundane infrastructure that serve us, we rarely think about how it all came together. Welcome to Measured in Metric, where we dive into the stories of the builders, the visionaries, and the influencers that have shaped the world we live in.
