Appian Way In Rome, Italy Editorial Image

View of the beginning of the via Appian Way today via di Porta San Sebastiano in Rome, Italy. In the Republican Roman era the via Appia passed through the Servian Wall at the Porta Capena. In subsequent centuries new construction changed the landmarks of the vicinity entirely. The wall was expanded to become the Aurelian Wall through which the Porta Appia admitted the Via Appia. The Appian gate today is called the Porta San Sebastiano. The Via Appia at that location was renamed to the Via di Porta San Sebastiano. The Appian Way is one of the earliest and strategically most important Roman roads of the ancient republic. It connected Rome to Brindisi, in southeast Italy. The road is named after Appius Claudius Caecus, the Roman censor who began and completed the first section as a military road to the south in 312 BC during the Samnite Wars.