guest. The way was paved throughout with broad hexagonal slabs of hard
lava, exactly fitted to each other; and here and there along its
course may still be seen important remains of it, which prove its
excellent workmanship. This method of constructing roads was borrowed
by the Romans from the Carthaginians, and was tried for the first time
on the Appian Way, all previous roads having been formed of sand and
gravel. The greatest breadth of the road was about twenty-six feet
between the curbstones; and on both sides were placed, at intervals of
forty feet, low columns, as seats for the travel-worn, and as helps in
mounting on horseback. Distances of five thousand feet were marked by
milestones, which were in the form of columnar shafts, elevated on
pedestals with appropriate inscriptions. The physical wants of the
traveller were provided for at inns judiciously disposed along the
route; while his religious wants were gratified by frequent statues of
Mercury, Apollo, Diana, Ceres, Hercules, and other deities, who
presided over highways and journeys, casting their sacred shadow over
his path. Some of the stones of the pavement still show the ruts of
the old chariot-wheels, and others are a good deal cracked and worn;
but they are sound enough, probably, to outlast the modern little
cubes which have replaced them in some parts. A road formed in this
most substantial manner for about two hundred miles, involving
cuttings through rocks, filling up of hollows, bridging of ravines,
and embanking of swamps, must have been an arduous and costly feat of
engineering. Appius Claudius is said to have exhausted the Roman
treasury in defraying the expenses of its construction. It was
frequently repaired, owing to the heavy traffic upon it, by Julius, by
Augustus, Vespasian, Domitian, Nerva, and very thoroughly by the
Emperor Trajan. In some parts, where the soft ground had subsided, a
second pavement was laid over the first; and in the Pontine Marshes we
observe traces of no less than three pavements superimposed above each