Sep

olcr

o di

Get

a

Sepo

lcro

di P

risci

lla

Cat

acom

bedi

S. C

allis

to

Bas

ilica

e ca

taco

mbe

di S

. Seb

astia

no

Chi

eset

ta d

el D

omin

e qu

o Va

dis?

Cat

acom

be d

i Pre

test

ato

Trio

pio

di E

rode

Atti

coSe

polcr

o di

Ann

ia R

egilla

Nin

feo

di E

geria

C

hies

a di

S. U

rban

o

Pala

zzo

diM

asse

nzio

Circ

o di

Mas

senz

io

Mau

sole

o di

Rom

olo

VIA

AR

DE

ATI

NA

VIA

DI C

EC

ILIA

ME

TELL

A

VIA

DE

LLA

CA

FFA

RE

LLA

VIA

AP

PIA

PIG

NA

TELL

I

VIA

ER

OD

E A

TTIC

OV

IA D

I TO

R C

AR

BO

NE

VIC

OLO

DI T

OR

CA

RB

ON

E

VIA

DE

GLI

EU

GE

NII

VIA

DE

I LU

GA

RI

VIA

DI C

AS

AL

RO

TON

DO

VIA

DI T

OR

RIC

OLA

VALLE DELLA CAFFARELLA

Mau

sole

o di

Cas

al R

oton

do

Torre

Sel

ce

Sta

tua

toga

ta

Vill

a de

i Qui

ntili

Mau

sole

o di

Cec

ilia M

etel

laC

hies

a di

S. N

icol

a

Castrum Caetani

Pala

zzo

Cae

tani

Cap

o di

Bov

e

Tom

ba a

Fes

toni

Tom

ba d

el F

ront

espi

zio

Sep

olcr

o de

gli E

quin

ozi

Sep

olcr

o di

S.U

rban

o

Sep

olcr

o di

Hila

ro F

usco

Sep

olcr

o di

Tib

erio

Cla

udio

Sec

ondo

Tom

ba c

.d. d

i Sen

eca

Sep

olcr

o ci

rcol

are

Tom

ba c

.d. d

ei fi

gli d

i Ses

to P

ompe

o

Tom

ba d

ei R

abiri

i

Tom

ba a

Tem

piet

to

Tem

pio

di G

Iove

Tom

ba d

i Sep

timia

Gal

la

Tom

ba a

pira

mid

e

Sep

olcr

o de

i Grif

i

Tom

ba d

ei s

ei a

rcos

oli

Sep

olcr

I in

late

rizio

San

ta M

aria

Nov

a

Nin

feo

della

Vill

a de

i Qui

ntili

Tum

uli d

egli

Ora

zi e

Cur

iazi

Porta

S. S

ebas

tiano

Sep

olcr

o di

Get

a

Sepo

lcro

di P

risci

lla

Cat

acom

bedi

S. C

allis

to

Bas

ilica

e ca

taco

mbe

di S

. Seb

astia

no

Chi

eset

ta d

el D

omin

e qu

o Va

dis?

Cat

acom

be d

i Pre

test

ato

Trio

pio

di E

rode

Atti

coSe

polcr

o di

Ann

ia R

egilla

Nin

feo

di E

geria

C

hies

a di

S. U

rban

o

Pala

zzo

diM

asse

nzio

Circ

o di

Mas

senz

io

Mau

sole

o di

Rom

olo

VIA

AR

DE

ATI

NA

VIA

DI C

EC

ILIA

ME

TELL

A

VIA

DE

LLA

CA

FFA

RE

LLA

VIA

AP

PIA

PIG

NA

TELL

I

VIA

ER

OD

E A

TTIC

OV

IA D

I TO

R C

AR

BO

NE

VIC

OLO

DI T

OR

CA

RB

ON

E

VIA

DE

GLI

EU

GE

NII

VIA

DE

I LU

GA

RI

VIA

DI C

AS

AL

RO

TON

DO

VIA

DI T

OR

RIC

OLA

VALLE DELLA CAFFARELLA

Mau

sole

o di

Cas

al R

oton

do

Torre

Sel

ce

Sta

tua

toga

ta

Vill

a de

i Qui

ntili

Mau

sole

o di

Cec

ilia M

etel

laC

hies

a di

S. N

icol

a

Castrum Caetani

Pala

zzo

Cae

tani

Cap

o di

Bov

e

Tom

ba a

Fes

toni

Tom

ba d

el F

ront

espi

zio

Sep

olcr

o de

gli E

quin

ozi

Sep

olcr

o di

S.U

rban

o

Arb

oret

umde

lla V

ia A

ppia

Sep

olcr

o di

Hila

ro F

usco

Sep

olcr

o di

Tib

erio

Cla

udio

Sec

ondo

Tom

ba c

.d. d

i Sen

eca

Sep

olcr

o ci

rcol

are

Tom

ba c

.d. d

ei fi

gli d

i Ses

to P

ompe

o

Tom

ba d

ei R

abiri

i

Tom

ba a

Tem

piet

to

Tem

pio

di G

Iove

Tom

ba d

i Sep

timia

Gal

la

Tom

ba a

pira

mid

e

Sep

olcr

o de

i Grif

i

Tom

ba d

ei s

ei a

rcos

oli

Sep

olcr

I in

late

rizio

San

ta M

aria

Nov

a

Nin

feo

della

Vill

a de

i Qui

ntili

Tum

uli d

egli

Ora

zi e

Cur

iazi

Porta

S. S

ebas

tiano

The large archaeological park running from the Capitoline, Forum and Palatine to the Appian Way, the most presti-gious of Rome’s public roads, was already one of Napoleon’s dreams for Rome in the early 19th century. Numerous monuments still survived on the Appian Way, a source of inspiration for men of culture from the Renaissance onwards and a treasure-trove for archaeological investi-gations. Work to refur-bish the road and some of its monuments was undertaken by Luigi Ca-

THE LARGE ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK AND THE OPEN-AIR MUSEUM OF THE 19TH CENTURY

nina, the Papal Gover-nment’s Commissioner for Roman Antiquities, between 1850 and 1853, in the form of a large “open-air museum”.In 1939 the first stretch of the Appian Way was obliterated bene-ath the Passeggiata Archeologica road artery, despite the original intention of enhancing the monu-mental area. Even to-day many monuments are privately owned. Attempts to safeguard the Appian Way and the surrounding area have not yet found a

solution appropriate to this unique context.

Information:www.viaappiaantica.comarcheoroma.beniculturali.itarchiviocederna.it+39 06 39967700

Illustrations by C. Labruzzi (1789 ca.) L. Canina (1850-1853)Concept by R. Paris and B. MazzottaMap design by M. Cola Graphic project by Communis Agere

Printed in February 2017

The construction of the Appian Way, begun by the censor Appius Claudius Caecus in 312 BC, marked the Roman conquest of southern Italy and opened the route to the Mediter-ranean via the port of Brindisi, where the road ended. The road began at the Capena Gate in the 6th-century BC Servian Walls opposite the Circus Maximus, in today’s Piazza di Por-ta Capena. It originally ended at Capua and was later prolonged to Benevento, Venosa and then to Brindisi. This was a massive

engineering work, desi-gned to allow for rapid and easy transport to various destinations, overcoming nume-rous natural obstacles along its route. The road surface of large paving stones, admi-red even in antiquity for its perfection, was laid gradually between the 3rd and 2nd century BC and restored under the Empire using stone from the lava flow of the Alban Hills Volca-no, which ran for 12 km up to the Mausoleum of Cecilia Metella. The road was about 4 me-tres wide to allow two

REGINA VIARUM

chariots to pass one another; on both sides were pavements (crepi-dines) for pedestrians, differing in width in dif-ferent stretches of the road according to ne-eds. The Appian Way was the most important road artery in the Ro-man world, well-deser-ving of the epithet re-gina viarum (queen of roads) which it was gi-ven by the poet Statius in the 1st century AD.

The first archaeologi-cal features visible on the Appian Way are the San Sebastiano Gate (which hosts the Museum of the Walls) and, immediately befo-re it, the so-called Arch of Drusus, probably a triumphal arch and later part of the antoninian aqueduct. From Piazza-le Numa Pompilio, the current start of the Ap-pian Way, to the Porta San Sebastiano, boun-dary walls conceal nu-merous funerary monu-ments on private land. These were the object of the first systematic excavations in this area

from the early 18th cen-tury to the 19th century. On the left-hand side, leaving Rome, is the fa-mous Tomb of the Sci-pios (visits by request to the Soprintendenza di Roma Capitale) where eminent figures of Re-publican Rome were buried, starting with Scipio Barbatus, con-sul in 298 BC; the large collective tombs include the columbaria of the Vigna Codini, publicly owned but inside priva-te residences (visits on request to the Soprin-tendenza). Along the next stretch outside the walls lie the tomb ascri-

A PLACE OF BURIALS

bed to Geta (murdered by his brother Caracal-la), topped by a priva-tely owned 16th-century farmhouse and, on the right, the tomb of Pri-scilla, the wife of a fre-edman of Domitian (AD 81-96). Opposite is the little church of Santa Maria in Palmis, better known as Domine, quo vadis?, the place of the legendary encounter between St Peter and Jesus, whose footprints remained miraculously impressed in one of the road’s paving stones.

Christian monuments dominate a long stretch of the road: on the ri-ght the complex of San Callisto with the longest network of catacomb tunnels in Rome, and the San Sebastiano area, which also com-prises important pagan monuments, known as the memoria apostolo-rum for its links with the cult of Peter and Paul and for having given rise to the word catacomb (katà kumbas at the ca-vities) from the natural cavities present in the area. The vast area now occupied by the complex of Maxentius, the Mau-

soleum of Cecilia Metel-la and part of the Caffa-rella Valley belonged to Herodes Atticus in the mid-2nd century AD. He was an illustrious man of Athenian origin, a philo-sopher, scholar and tutor to the emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Ve-rus. On the death of his noble wife Annia Re-gilla, who had brought him as a dowry, among other things, her vast lands along the Appian Way, Herodes Atticus reorganized the estate in her honour, giving it a sacred and funerary function, building tem-ples and consecrating

THE CHRISTIAN CEMETERIES AND THE CAFFARELLA VALLEY

an area to the gods of the underworld and the funerary cult of his de-ceased wife, naming it the Triopium. The main monuments still visible in the Caffarella Valley are: the church of Sant’Ur-bano built in the early Middle Ages over the Temple of Ceres and Faustina, the so-called Tomb of Annia Regilla next to the Almone river, the Nymphaeum ascri-bed to Egeria, one of the Camenae, goddesses of waters and springs, the so-called Constantinian Columbarium and the Valca Tower.

In the early 4th century AD, before his defe-at by Constantine, the emperor Maxentius bu-ilt a complex above the remains of earlier buil-dings which was typical of imperial Tetrarchic ideology and the desire to aggrandize the impe-rial dynasty for its com-bination of a Palace, a Mausoleum and a Cir-cus. Further along the road, at the 3rd mile, lies the Mausoleum of Caecilia Metella, in a dominant position as this is where the lava flow known as Capo di Bove ends; it was cre-ated by the Alban Hills

Volcano about 260,000 years ago. The tomb was built between 30 and 10 BC by one of Rome’s most important aristocratic families. The frieze on the top, decorated with gar-lands and bull’s skulls, have given the area its name of Capo di Bove (bull’s head). In the early 14th century the Caetani family built a large fortress here to control traffic entering and exiting Rome. The Castrum Caetani, ex-tending to both sides of the road, comprised an aristocratic residence next to the mausoleum,

THE COMPLEX OF MAXENTIUS,LEO THE MAUSO-LEUM OF CAECILIA METELLA AND CAPO DI BOVEIL MAUSO

the church of San Nico-la di Bari and walls with towers. Further on, at no. 222, is an archaeo-logical complex recent-ly acquired by the So-printendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma. Alongside the 2nd-century AD bath complex discovered in the garden, the building hosting photographic exhibitions and housing the archive of Antonio Cederna can be visited.

Work to refurbish the Appian Way and some of i ts monuments between the 4th and 11th mile was comple-ted between 1850 and 1853 by Luigi Canina, the Papal Govern-ment’s Commissio-ner for Roman Antiqui-ties: as well as restoring the road, a strip of land about 10 metres wide on each side with its funerary monuments was purchased by the state. Following the examples of Valadier and Canova, Canina created a sort of vast “open-air museum” to preserve the ancient

monuments over time and protect them from thieves, using new re-storation and conser-vation methods for the archaeological features discovered. The fune-rary monuments along the road belong to diffe-rent architectural types dating to between the end of the Republic and the mid-imperial period. Some tombs preserve portraits and inscrip-tions naming the dece-ased. One of the most important stretches is the 5th mile. The nu-merous monuments include: on the left, the structure of a pyra-

4TH AND 5TH MILE

mid-shaped funerary building; on the right the tombs attributed to the Horatii and Curia-tii in the place known as the fossae Cluiliae, where the duel marking the defeat of Alba Lon-ga and the supremacy of Rome over Latium was believed to have taken place. Many mo-numents stand inside private properties, are not visible and have often been adapted for residential or decorati-ve purposes.

The Villa of the Quin-tili was the largest villa in the Roman suburbs. Belonging to the Quintili brothers (consuls in 151 BC) it became an impe-rial property under Com-modus and remained in use until the 5th century AD. It preserves signs of the different building pha-ses and of the transfor-mations undergone by its structures and decora-tions. The most imposing buildings belong to the vil-la’s bath complex; on the Appian Way lies the large Nymphaeum reused in the medieval period as a fortress. The entrance to the archaeological area

and the Antiquarium lies at Via Appia Nuova no. 1092. The estate of San-ta Maria Nova, next to the area of the Villa dei Quintili, was recently pur-chased by the Soprinten-denza; it hosts buildings which have undergone transformations from the Roman period until the present. Beyond this, the many monuments include the circular mau-soleum of Casal Roton-do, on private land, the imposing Torre Selce built in the medieval pe-riod on top of a Roman tomb, a circular mauso-leum of the 4th century AD known as Berretto

THE VILLA OF THE QUINTILI AND THE ROAD UP TO THE 9TH MILE

del Prete (priest’s hat) for its shape and, at the 9th mile on the right, the mausoleum ascribed to the emperor Gallienus (AD 253-286). When the restoration of the last stretch of the road is completed, the Appian Way will recover its sta-tus as a national monu-ment and play a cultural role in keeping with its importance becoming, as Italo Insolera has written “the backbone of a new structure able to build the true modern Rome”.