The Via Aurelia () is a

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

in Italy constructed in approximately 241 BC. The project was undertaken by Gaius Aurelius Cotta, who at that time was censor.Hornblower, Simon, & Antony Spawforth. ''The Oxford Classical Dictionary.'' 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996. Cotta had a history of building roads for Rome, as he had overseen the construction of a military road in Sicily (as consul in 252 BC, during the

First Punic War The First Punic War (264–241 BC) was the first of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean in the early 3rd century BC. For 23 years, in the longest continuous conflict and grea ...

) connecting ''Agrigentum'' (modern Agrigento) and ''Panormus'' (modern

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

Background

In the middle Republic, a series of roads were built throughout Italy to serve the needs of Roman expansion, including swift army movements and reasonably quick communication with Roman colonies spread throughout Italy. There also was the unintended (but beneficial) consequence of an increase in trade among Italian cities and with Rome. The roads were standardized to wide allowing two chariots to pass, and distance was marked with

milestone A milestone is a numbered marker placed on a route such as a road, railway, railway line, canal or border, boundary. They can indicate the distance to towns, cities, and other places or landmarks like Mileage sign, mileage signs; or they c ...

s. The Via Aurelia was constructed as a part of this road construction campaign, which began in 312 BC with the building of the

Via Appia The Appian Way (Latin and Italian: Via Appia) is one of the earliest and strategically most important Roman roads of the ancient republic. It connected Rome to Brindisi, in southeast Italy. Its importance is indicated by its common name, recor ...

. Other roads included in this construction period were the ''Viae Amerina'' ( 231 BC), ''Flaminina'', ''Clodia'', '' Aemilia'', ''Cassia'', ''Valeria'' ( 307 BC), and ''Caecilia'' ( 283 BC).

Route

The Via Aurelia crossed the

Tiber The Tiber ( ; ; ) is the List of rivers of Italy, third-longest river in Italy and the longest in Central Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio, where it is joined by the R ...

by way of the bridge ''Pons Aemilius'', then exited Rome from its western side. After the Emperor

Aurelian Aurelian (; ; 9 September ) was a Roman emperor who reigned from 270 to 275 AD during the Crisis of the Third Century. As emperor, he won an unprecedented series of military victories which reunited the Roman Empire after it had nearly disinte ...

built a wall around Rome ( 270–273 CE), the Via Aurelia exited from the Porta Aurelia (gates). The road then ran about to Alsium on the Tyrrhenian coast, north along the coast to ''Vada Volaterrana'', Cosa, and ''Pisae'' (modern-day

Pisa Pisa ( ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Tuscany, Central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for the Leaning Tow ...

). There the original length of the Via Aurelia terminated. This was an especially important route during the early and middle Republic because it linked Rome, ''Cosa'', and ''Pisae''. ''Cosa'' was an important colony and military outpost in

Etruria Etruria ( ) was a region of Central Italy delimited by the rivers Arno and Tiber, an area that covered what is now most of Tuscany, northern Lazio, and north-western Umbria. It was inhabited by the Etruscans, an ancient civilization that f ...

, and ''Pisae'' was the only port between ''Genua'' and Rome. Consequently, it was an important naval base for the Romans in their wars against the Ligurians,

Gauls The Gauls (; , ''Galátai'') were a group of Celts, Celtic peoples of mainland Europe in the Iron Age Europe, Iron Age and the Roman Gaul, Roman period (roughly 5th century BC to 5th century AD). Their homeland was known as Gaul (''Gallia''). Th ...

and

Carthaginians The Punic people, usually known as the Carthaginians (and sometimes as Western Phoenicians), were a Semitic people, Semitic people who Phoenician settlement of North Africa, migrated from Phoenicia to the Western Mediterranean during the Iron ...

. The Via Aurelia later was extended by roughly in 109 BC by the Via Aemilia Scauri, constructed by M. Aemilius Scaurus. This road led to ''Dertona'' (modern

Tortona Tortona (; , ; ) is a ''comune'' of Piemonte, in the Province of Alessandria, Italy. Tortona is sited on the right bank of the Scrivia between the plain of Spinetta Marengo, Marengo and the foothills of the Ligurian Apennines. Its ''frazione'' of ...

), ''Placentia'',

Cremona Cremona ( , , ; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in northern Italy, situated in Lombardy, on the left bank of the Po (river), Po river in the middle of the Po Valley. It is the capital of the province of Cremona and the seat of the local city a ...

, ''Aquilea'', and ''Genua'', from which travellers could proceed to ''Gallia Narbonensis'' (southern France) by way of the

Via Postumia The Via Postumia was an ancient military Roman road of northern Italy constructed in 148 BC by the ''consul'' Spurius Postumius Albinus Magnus. It ran from the coast at Genoa through the mountains to Dertona, Placentia (the termination of the ...

. This followed some rebuilding of the road by the same person during his consulship in 119 BC. By the time of the high Empire, travellers could go from Rome by way of the Via Aurelia across the Alps on the

Via Julia Augusta The Via Julia Augusta (modern Italian Via Giulia Augusta) is the name given to the Roman road formed by the merging of the Via Aemilia Scauri with the Via Postumia. History The Via Julia Augusta was begun in 13 BC by Augustus, and its engineering ...

to either northern France or ''Gades'' (modern Cadiz, Spain).Boumphrey, Geoffrey Maxwell. ''Along the Roman Roads.'' London: Allen & Unwin, 1935. The modern Strada Statale 1 Aurelia occupies the same route, and colloquially is still referred to as ''La Via Aurelia''.

Roman bridges

There are the remains of several Roman bridges along the road, including the Cloaca di Porta San Clementino, Ponte del Diavolo, Primo Ponte, and the Secondo Ponte (the last three in Sta Marinella).

References

External links

* Samuel Ball Platner
Via Aurelia
from ''A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome'' (London: Oxford University Press, 1929). * Joshua Hammer

''Smithsonian'' magazine, June 2009.
Omnes Viae: Via Aurelia on the Tabula Peutingeriana
{{List of Roman roads Aurelia, Via 240s BC establishments 3rd-century BC establishments in the Roman Republic 3rd-century BC establishments in Italy Rome Q. XIV Trionfale Rome S. IX Aurelio Rome S. VIII Gianicolense

Background

Route

Roman bridges

See also

References

External links