another, and fused all distinctions of race and language and religion
into one great commonwealth. And for the cohesion of all the elements
of this huge political fabric nothing could have been more effectual
than the magnificent roads, by which constant communication was kept
up between all parts of the empire, and armies could be transported to
quell a rising rebellion in some outlying province with the smallest
expenditure of time and strength. In this way the genius of this
wonderful people was providentially made subservient to the interests
of Christianity. At the very time that our Lord commissioned, with His
parting breath, the apostles to preach the gospel to every creature,
the way was prepared for the fulfilment of that commission. The
crooked places had been made straight, and the rough places smooth.
Along the roads which the Romans made throughout the world for the
march of their armies and the consolidation of their government, the
apostles, the soldiers of the Prince of Peace, marched to grander and
more enduring victories.

Of all the roads of ancient Rome the Via Appia was the oldest and most
renowned. It was called by the Romans themselves the _regina viarum_,
the "queen of roads." It was constructed by Appius Claudius the Blind,
during the Samnite War, when he was Censor, three hundred and thirteen
years before Christ, and led from Rome to Capua, being carried over
the Pontine Marshes on an embankment. It was afterwards extended to
Brindisi, the ancient seaport of Rome on the Adriatic, and became the
great highway for travellers from Rome to Greece and all the eastern
provinces of the Roman Empire. A curious link of connection may be
traced between the modern Italian expression, when drinking to a
person's health on leaving home, "far Brindisi," and the distant
termination of the Appian Way, suggestive, as of old, of farewell
wishes for a prosperous journey and a speedy return to the parting