Start with our video overview:
To create a shortcut for the Via Appia at Terracina, Roman engineers cut back a huge section of a mountain for a new coastal route. We’ll examine the city, the sanctuary, and the original and new Via Appia routes in the context of one of Rome’s boldest engineering feats! Travel with us down the Via Appia! In this episode (3 out of 8!) the Via Appia arrives at the coast in the Republican-era town of Terracina. But due to the rocky terrain and sheer cliffs that lined the coast, the Roman road builders were forced to turn the Via Appia upward, to climb up to the top of the mountain- where the sanctuary of Jupiter Anxur stood- overlooking Terracina and its port, then head downward once again, along the coast. Let’s examine the city and the sanctuary, then take a stunning look at the later imperial project to cut back the mountain along the coast to create a dramatic shortcut for the Via Appia, in the time of Augustus or Trajan. It’s yet another amazing aspect of the history of the Via Appia, and with our original drone footage you’ll truly experience this history as never before!
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Cite this page as: Darius Arya, The American Institute for Roman Culture, “Via Appia: Episode III, Sky High Terracina” Ancient Rome Live. Last modified 12/09/2022. https://ancientromelive.org/via-appia-episode-iii-sky-high-terracina/
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Created by The American Institute of Roman Culture, published on 12/09/2022 under the following license: Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this content non-commercially, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.