Via Popillia

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The Via Popilia is the name of two different ancient Roman roads begun in the consulship of Publius Popilius Laenas. One was in southern Italy and the other was in north-eastern Italy.

Road in southern Italy

The road in southern Italy ran from the Via Appia at Capua to Rhegium on the Straits of Messina. The discovery the Polla Tablet found in the church of San Pietro di Polla (Salerno) with part of its itinerarium engraved on stone brought it more fully into the light of history.

It was possibly built by Publius Popilius Laenas, consul of 132 BC, who founded Forum Popilii marked on the Tabula Peutingeriana. A milestone found in 1952 in Capua suggests that it was Annius who built and gave his name to the road, but he may have completed it.

It ran a distance of 321 Roman miles (475 km) through southern Campania and Calabria, through the interior of the country, not along the coast.

There are the remains of at least one Roman bridge along the road, the Sant' Angelo Roman bridge.

Road in north-eastern Italy

The road in north-eastern Italy connected ''Ariminum'' (modern Rimini) to Atria (modern Adria). At Atria it joined the Via Annia which went to ''Patavium'' (modern Padua), Altinum and Aquileia. It was an extension of the Via Flaminia which connected Rome and ''Ariminum''. ''Ariminum'' was also at the junction with the Via Aemilia which run through the plain of the River Po. This via Popilia was not mentioned in ancient sources. It was identified through a milestone found near Adria in 1844. It indicated the name of the man who had it built, Pulius Popilius, and that the origin of the road was 81 miles further south. This information, together with that provided by two Roman itineraries, the Antonine Itinerary and the Tabula Peutingeriana, has led to the identification of this road as having been built by the consul Publius Popilius Laenas, who was consul in 132 BCE and having had ''Ariminum'' as its starting point. The two itineraries indicated ''Ariminum'' as the starting point but did not mention Atria and have it ending in Altinum through different routes.Emilia-Romagna Region Institute for Artistic, Cultural and Natural Heritage
/ref>Istituto per i Beni Artistici, Culturali e Naturali della Regione Emilia-Romagna, Per vie Antiche, Guida al Oarco Archeologico dell'Alto Adriatico, Editrice Compositori, Bologna, 2014
/ref>

The idea that the older course of the Via Popilia reached ''Atria'' finds possible support through the proposed reconstructions of the Via Annia which have it starting at ''Atria''. This gives a picture of carefully planned and continuous route which follows the Italian regions on the upper Adriatic Sea. The two mentioned itineraries differ in their depiction of the course. The former presents a journey which was mainly through watercourses, rivers and lagoons connected to each other by a network of canals. The latter depicts a land route with staging posts (''mansiones'', plural of ''mansio''). The ''Ariminum'' to Ravenna tract went by the ''Sabis mansio'' and the current Cervia saltworks. North of Ravenna it continued towards the lagoon of Comacchio, flanking the Augusta canal commissioned by the emperor Augustus to connect Ravenna with the southern branch of the River Po, passing by the ''mansiones'' of ''Butrium'' and ''Augusta''. The next ''mansio'' was ''Sacis ad Padum'', near Spina, which was named after the ''Sagis'' branch of the Po. The road then crossed the ''Neronia'' canal and the ''Flavia'' canal and had the ''Neronia'' and ''Corniculani mansiones''. It then reached the ''Hadriani mansio''. Here the route split into two. The older one went to ''Atria''. The other one went through the lagoon belt of the southern Veneto and reached Altinum.

The ''Ariminum'' to Ravenna tract seemed to use the coastal cliff and sandy strip. However, it seems to have later run into problems and for a stretch a more inland route, which in part followed the current via del Confine, was preferred, even though the coastal route continued to be used. The road must then have gone along a coastal path again and must have reached Cervia, on the coast, where archaeological ruins have been found. The ''Sabis mansio'' on the River Savio seems to have served both routes. The road then reached Ravenna. From there it followed the Augusta canal until ''Butrium'' (in today's Sant'Alberto, on the southern shore of the lagoon of Comacchio) which was on the now extinct Po di Primaro branch of the River Po and skirted the mentioned lagoon. Perhaps there was a port there. It then followed the ''Augusta'' embankment where there was the ''Augusta mansio'' of the ''Tabula Peutingeriana''. It then crossed ''Valtrenus''. It was thus described by Pliny the Elder, "By the Augustan canal the Padus ois carried to Ravenna, at which place it is called the Padusa … The nearest mouth to this spot forms the extensive port known as that of Vatrenus …"

Slightly further north the road reached the now extinct Po Spinetico branch of the River Po, just before ancient Spina, just to the north of Comacchio. It then followed another extinct branch of the river, the ''Sagis'', and reached the ''Sacis Ad Padum mansio'', where a canal which was probably commissioned by the emperor Nero started. The road went through the ''Corniculani'' and ''Hadriani mansiones'' (perhaps in Codigoro and San Basiglio in the municipality of Ariano nel Polesine respectively). It then reached the ''Septem Maria'' (Seven Seas),Septem Maria William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854)
/ref> which is indicated in the Antonine itinerary and was probably between Donada and Contarina in the municipality of Porto di Viro, close to Adria. The ''fossa Clodia'' canal started here, at the River Tartaro, and reached today's Chioggia in the Lagoon of Venice. The road then turned right, further inland, to reach ''Atria''.

It is possible that in late antiquity, after Hadriani the coastal road followed a different course from that of the Popilia, which turned towards Atria but was not indicated in the Tabula Peutingeriana. The road probably decayed precociously, which explains the loss of the road name and the deterioration of the road system.

See also

*Roman roads
*Roman bridges
*Roman engineering

References

Bibliography

* Bosio L., La via Popilia-Annia, in Aquileia e l’arco adriatico, Udine 1990, pp. 43–60
*Dall'Aglio P.L., Di Cocco I., La linea e la rete. Formazione storica del sistema stradale in Emilia-Romagna, Milano 2006, pp. 202–212, 333-335
*Donati A., Verso il Nordest, in I Miliari. Lungo le strade dell'impero, Atti del Convegno (Isola della Scala, 28 novembre 2010), Cierre Edizioni, 2011, pp. 29–33;
*F. Lenzi F., (a cura di), Regio VIII. Luoghi, uomini, percorsi dell'età romana in Emilia-Romagna, Bologna 2006, pp. 576–584
*Patitucci Uggeri S., Il sistema fluvio-lagunare, l’insediamento e le difese del territorio ravennate settentrionale (V-VIII secolo), in Ravenna da capitale imperiale a capitale esarcale, Atti del XVII congresso internazionale di studio sull'alto Medioevo (Ravenna, 6-12 giugno 2004), Fondazione CISAM, 2005, pp. 280–295, 340–341, 346–347;

External links

The Polla TabletOmnes Viae: Via Popilia on the Peutinger MapRhetorics of land and power in the Polla inscription

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