APPIAN WAY. The Via Appia was the first of the paved roads which were the supreme engineering achievement of Rome. It was named after Appius Claudius Caecus, the censor, one of the first clear-cut personalities of Rom. history. Begun in 312 b.c., the Appian Way ran from Rome to Capua, with a later extension to Beneventum and Brundisium. The road reached the latter town in 244 b.c. when a Rom colony was founded there. The width was fifteen ft., the length 350 m. The Appian Way is still traceable for many m. S of Rome and forms a striking memorial of Rom. engineering skill. Long stretches of the paving are still intact. The first reaches of the highway were flanked with memorial structures and tombs, ruins of which survive. Christian sanctuaries which survive include the “Domine Quo Vadis?” chapel, near the junction of the road with the wall of Rome, the catacombs of St. Callixtus, and the basilica of St. Sebastian. Paul must have traversed a part of the Appian Way on his journey from Puteoli to Rome (Acts 28:13-16). Appii Forum, a market town on the Appian Way, almost forty m. S of Rome, a staging post mentioned in the same story, was also a foundation of Appius Claudius, the builder of the highway.