The Via Praenestina (modern Italian: Via Prenestina) was an ancient

Roman road Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...

in central

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. Initially called Via Gabiana, from

Gabii Gabii was an ancient city of Latium, located due east of Rome along the Via Praenestina, which was in early times known as the ''Via Gabina''. It was on the south-eastern perimeter of an extinct volcanic crater lake, approximately circular ...

, the ancient city of

Old Latium Old Latium ( la, Latium vetus or ') is a region of the Italian peninsula bounded to the north by the river Tiber, to the east by the central Apennine mountains, to the west by the Mediterranean Sea and to the south by Monte Circeo. It was the t ...

to which it ran, it received a new name having been extended as far as Praeneste (modern Palestrina). Once past Praeneste the road continued towards the

Apennines The Apennines or Apennine Mountains (; grc-gre, links=no, Ἀπέννινα ὄρη or Ἀπέννινον ὄρος; la, Appenninus or – a singular with plural meaning;''Apenninus'' (Greek or ) has the form of an adjective, which wou ...

and the source of the

Anio River The Aniene (; la, Aniō), formerly known as the Teverone, is a river in Lazio, Italy. It originates in the Apennines at Trevi nel Lazio and flows westward past Subiaco, Vicovaro, and Tivoli to join the Tiber in northern Rome. It formed the pr ...

. At the ninth mile the road crosses a ravine by the well-preserved and lofty Ponte di Nona, with seven arches, the finest ancient bridge in the neighbourhood of Rome. The line of the road is, considering the difficulty of the country beyond Gabii, very straight. Half-way between Gabii and Praeneste is a well-preserved single-arched bridge,

Ponte Amato Ponte, a word meaning '' bridge'' in Italian, Portuguese, and Galician languages, may refer to: Places England *Pontefract, a town in the Metropolitan City of Wakefield France * Ponte Leccia, a civil parish (hameau) in the department of Haute-C ...

. Ashby cites his own contribution to ''Papers of the British School at Rome'', i. 149 sqq.

References

Praenestina Rome Q. VII Prenestino-Labicano Rome Q. VI Tiburtino Rome Q. XIX Prenestino-Centocelle Rome Q. XXII Collatino Rome Q. XXIII Alessandrino {{Italy-road-stub