AEMILIA VIA, or AEMILIAN WAY

This article appears in Volume V01, Page 257 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: ADA-AIZ

AEMILIA VIA, or AEMILIAN WAY . (I) A highroad of Italy, constructed in 187 B.C. by the

consul

M. Aemilius Lepidus, from whom it takes its name; it ran from Ariminum to Placentia, a distance of 176 m. almost straight N.W., with the plain of the Po (Padus) and its tributaries on the right, and the Apennines on the left. The 79th milestone from Ariminum found in the bed of the Rhenus at Bononia reccirds the restoration of the road by

Augustus

AUGUSTUS (a name 1 derived from Lat. augeo, increase, i.e. venerable, majestic, Gr. Ee0avr6s)

from Ariminum to the river Trebia in 2 B.C. (Notiz. Scay., 1902, 539). The

bridge

BRIDGE

by which it crossed the Sillaro was restored by Trajan in A.D. 100 (Notizie degli Scavi, 1888, 621). The modern highroad follows the ancient line, and some of the

original

ORIGINAL

bridges still exist. After

Augustus

AUGUSTUS (a name 1 derived from Lat. augeo, increase, i.e. venerable, majestic, Gr. Ee0avr6s)

, the road gave its name to the

district

DISTRICT

which formed the eighth region of Italy (previously known as Gallia or Provincia Ariminum), at first in popular usage (as in Martial), but in official language as early as the 2nd century; it is still in use (see EMILIA). The

district

DISTRICT

was bounded on the N. by the Padus, E. by the Adriatic, S. by the river Crustumium (mod. Conca), and W. by the Apennines and the Ira (mod. Staffora) at Iria (mod. Voghera), and corresponds approximately with the- modern district.
(2) A road constructed in iog B.C. by the censor M. Aemilius Scaurus from Vada Volaterrana and Luna to Vada Sabatia and thence over the Apennines to Dertona (

Tortona

TORTONA (anc. Dertona)

), where it joined
the VIa. Postumia from Genua to Cremona. We must, however (as Mommsen points out in C.I.L. v. p. 885), suppose that the portion of the

coast

COAST (from Lat. costa, a rib, side)

road from Vada Volaterrana to Genua at least must have existed before the construction of the Via Postumia in 148 B.C. Indeed

Polybius

POLYBIUS (c. 204–122 B.C.)

(iii. 39. 8) tells us (and this must refer to the time of the Gracchi if not earlier) that the Romans had in his time built the

coast

COAST (from Lat. costa, a rib, side)

road from the Rhone to Carthago Nova; and it is incredible that the coast road in Italy itself should not have been constructed previously. It is, how-ever, a very different thing to open a road for

traffic

TRAFFIC

, and so to construct it that it takes its name from that construction in perpetuity. (T. As.)

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