Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 May 1895 — THE APPIAN WAY. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE APPIAN WAY.

Something: of the Construction of This Celebrated Road. Visitors to Rome find the Appiau Way the most fascinating study of the ancients. From its commencement In the Forum out to Frascatti, fifteen miles, it was known as Via Sacra, and for much of the distance its sides were the burial ground of the rich and well-to-do. More than 1,000,000 persons found sepulcher along its course, and as the interment was by night the flaming torches of the burial parties

were so numerous that at a distance it resembled a gala occasion instead of the most solemn of terrestrial ceremonies. The obsequies took place nine days after death and were gfuesome indeed. Hired musicians played mournful airs, a clown took off the dead man’s peculiarities and the female mourners gave loud utterance to their grief, beating their breasts and tearing their hair. With the wealthy the body was carried on an ivory couch and covered with gold and purple. Appius Claudius, censor of Rome, commenced the construction of the Appian Way 2,208 years ago. In the way of road building it never has had an equal. It was the greatest engineering triumph of the Romans. The expense of Its construction exceeded even that of the viaducts. Mountains had to be cut through, valleys filled up, ravines bridged and swamps embanked to give Rome a perfect highway to the southernmost point of Italy. The roadbed was of the most substantial character. The excavation was carried four feet and the loose soil was carefully re-

moved. Then a roller was employed to harden the floor of the excavation. Upon this bed were placed four layers of stone cemented with lime. The upper or surface fetone consisted of basaltic lava, a foot in thickness and of the hardness of flint It was cut with six sides and so accurately jointed that it looked as if it were a solid mass. It is twenty-two centuries since

it was laid and to this day in ’spots It is as good as when the road was opened to the triumphant legions of Rome, About the city the roadway has beet macadamized, but at Terracina and iu the Forum you can see the same blocks that sustained the Roman chariots centuries before the birth of Christ. One of the most impressive spectacles along this highway is the Tomb of Caecilia Metalla, built 1,900 years ago. It lies two miles outside the ancient gates on an eminence overlooking the Campagna, is circular in form, with an embattled top, seventy /eet high and sixty feet in diameter. It was built of brick and the outside coated witli travertine marble which was removed during this century to adorn the Fountain of Trevi. The walls are twenty-five feet thick, and within the tower is a circular dome-shaped chamber fifteen feet In diameter. Here rested the remains of Caecilia Metalla, wife of Crassus, the son of the celebrated Triumvir. At different periods it served as a fortress and lias stood several sieges. Not far from this sepulcher is the spot where 5,000 Christians were put to death by the Romans because they would not turn pagan. The scene of the massacre is marked by ti slab recounting the fate of the martyrs.

Another striking tomb bordering the Appian Way is the Pyramid of Calus Cestius, a patrician and statesman who died 12 B. C. The style is Egyptian and the material Is brick, which Is covered with marble blocks/ I 'The top Is ninety feet from the ground. Its ancient character is heightened by the Gate of St. Paul, which it adjoins, and which is one of the best preserved of the entrances to the walled city. The gate is even older than the tomb and is an object of surpassing interest to the tourist St. Paul’s Church, next to St Peter’s, the most magnificent in Rome, is beyond this gate on the Appian Way. Near it St. Peter and St Paul bade farewell to each other. Farther along is the Church of Dominie Quo Vadis where, when St Peter was fleeing from the death of a martyr, our Lord miraculously appeared to him in human form and admonished him to go back and face his persecutors and give up his life for the sake of the people, to which St. Peter assented. On this visitation the footprints of the Divine Master were Impressed on stone, one of which is preserved in the Church of St. Sebastian and shown to visitors. *

THE TOMB OF CÆCILIA METALLA.

THE PYRAMID OF CAIUS CESTIUS.