Following Caesar
About This Book
Following Caesar traces three ancient Roman roads and explores more than two thousand years of their history from the viewpoint of a present-day traveler. The routes pass through six countries between Rome and Istanbul, and the author follows them to see how they shaped the places they cross. In 66 B.C., Julius Caesar was still early in his career and eager for standing and power when he was appointed curator of the Via Appia. He borrowed heavily to restore the highway, which had been built from Rome to Brindisi between 312 and 191 B.C. The work won over the citizens of the towns along the route, and his popularity grew quickly. After his successes in Rome and in Gaul, he marched his armies down this road to fight his rivals in the Roman civil wars. He then crossed the Adriatic to reach the Via Egnatia, the Via Appia's sister road, which begins in present-day Albania. Later armies used both roads, linking Rome with Byzantium, modern Istanbul. Octavian, who became Rome's first emperor in 27 B.C., and his former friend and later rival Mark Antony also journeyed along parts of both roads before defeating Caesar's assassins, Brutus and Cassius, at Philippi in eastern Macedonia. Cicero, the poet Homer, Virgil and many other notable figures traveled one or both routes. In the first century, the apostles Peter and Paul walked stretches of them, and for much of the Middle Ages, pilgrims bound for Jerusalem did the same. Early in the second century A.D., Emperor Trajan charted a new coastal road between Benevento and Brindisi, later known as the Via Traiana. Short sections of all three roads survive today, in the ruins of ancient Roman cities now preserved as archaeological sites and in the countryside beside modern highways, sometimes running beneath them. Retracing these routes is the book's purpose. It is a journey of adventure, discovery and friendship.
ISBN: 9781250792402
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