Page "Appian Way" Paragraph 25

The road began in the Forum Romanum, passed through the Servian Wall at the porta Capena, went through a cutting in the clivus Martis, and left the city.

For this stretch of the road, the builders used the via Latina.

The building of the Aurelian Wall centuries later required the placing of another gate, the Porta Appia.

Outside of Rome the new via Appia went through well-to-do suburbs along the via Norba, the ancient track to the Alban hills, where Norba was situated.

The road at the time was a via glarea, a gravel road.

The Romans built a high-quality road, with layers of cemented stone over a layer of small stones, crowned, drainage ditches on either side, low retaining walls on sunken portions, and dirt pathways for sidewalks.

The via Appia is believed to have been the first Roman road to feature the use of lime cement.

The materials were volcanic rock.

The surface was said to have been so smooth that you could not distinguish the joints.

The Roman section still exists and is lined with monuments of all periods, although the cement has eroded out of the joints, leaving a very rough surface.