The Via Appia connected Rome with the southern Italian port of Brindisi.
Construction began in 312 BCE under Appius Claudius Caecus, censor of the Roman Republic. The road first reached Capua and was later extended through southern Italy to Brundisium, modern Brindisi, on the Adriatic coast. Its Latin name was Via Appia, while English commonly calls it the Appian Way.
The route supported military movement, administration and trade. Roman road builders used carefully prepared foundations, paving stones and drainage, although not every section had the same surface or engineering form. The road's endpoint at Brindisi connected Italy to shipping routes toward Greece and the eastern Mediterranean.
The Via Appia became famous in Christian history and Roman political history. In 71 BCE, thousands of enslaved people captured after Spartacus's revolt were crucified along the road from Rome to Capua. The Appian Way remains one of the best-known surviving Roman roads.