FORUM APPII

forum appii, an ancient post station on the via appia, 43 m. s.e. of rome, founded, no doubt, by the original constructor of the road. horace mentions it as the usual halt at the end of the first day's journey from rome, and describes it as full of boatmen and cheating innkeepers. the presence of the former was due to the fact that it was the starting-point of a canal which ran parallel to the road through the pomptine marshes, and was used instead of it at the time of strabo and horace (see appia, via). it is mentioned also as a halting place in the account of paul's journey to rome (acts xxviii. 15). under nerva and trajan the road was repaired; one inscription records expressly the paving with silex (replacing the former gravelling) of the section from tripontium, 4 m. n.w., to forum appii; the bridge near tripontium was similarly repaired, and that at forum appii, though it bears no inscription, is of the same style. only scanty relics of antiquity have been found here; a post station was placed here by pius vi. when the via appia was reconstructed. (t. as.)