. The life of the Greeks and Romans. Fig. 361. THE VIA APPIA. 343 dam. The Via Appia, for instance, was thus conducted throughthe Pontine marshes. In other places, again, the road had to becarried on along precipices on walled substructures or is the case in thatpart of the Yia Appiawhich descends from Al-bano to the valley ofAriccia ; just below thevillage of Ariccia it runsfor a considerable distanceon an embankment facedwith freestone. Fig. 362shows this part of the road with massive balustrades and seatson both sides of it. Vaulted openings in the basement evi-dently served a
. The life of the Greeks and Romans. Fig. 361. THE VIA APPIA. 343 dam. The Via Appia, for instance, was thus conducted throughthe Pontine marshes. In other places, again, the road had to becarried on along precipices on walled substructures or is the case in thatpart of the Yia Appiawhich descends from Al-bano to the valley ofAriccia ; just below thevillage of Ariccia it runsfor a considerable distanceon an embankment facedwith freestone. Fig. 362shows this part of the road with massive balustrades and seatson both sides of it. Vaulted openings in the basement evi-dently served as outlets for the mountain streams. As to the technical arrangements of the roads, such as pave-ment, gutters, &c, full information is derived from Hirts work, Die Lehre von clen Gebauden bei den Griechen und Eomern,which we have followed in many points. The roads were eitherstrewn with sand and gravel (glared viam sterner e) or paved with. solid stones. In the latter case generally polygonal blocks ofsome hard stone, generally basalt, are chosen for the roadway, thesurface being made as smooth as possible (silice sternere viam) as isshown by the part of the Yia Appia in Fig. 363. In case therewere raised pavements for foot-passengers, they were generallymade of the softer common tufa (lapide sterner-e). The middleof the road was generally raised a little, so as to make therain-water flow off; small outlets for the water, such as we
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