The second hypothesis maintains that the road was an extension of the Via Popilia (which connected Ariminum (modern Rimini) to Atria, linking it to Aquileia via Patavium and Altinum.
[4] The Road ended at Aquileia, which originated as a fortress town to defend northern Italy from invasions from the northeast and the east.
[5] and developed into a trading town with an important fluvial port and which connected eastern Venetia with Istria, Iulia Emona (modern Ljubljana) and Noricum.
Many emperors and their armies travelled along this road in the 6th century CE to defend the eastern boundary of the Empire.
Their names were recorded on five milestones found along the Musile di Piave–Ceggia tract, to the east of Altinum, which crossed an ancient branch of the River Piave.
Two piers and a number of three-arched sandstone bridgeheads that crossed a now extinct tract Canalat or Old Piavon River can be seen south of Ceggia.
Further east the road crossed the River Livenza at Santa Anastasia where the ruins of a bridge became visible in the last century.
The stretch from Porto Menai, Altinum and to south of Musile di Piave was on raised land because the area was prone to floods.
The road was on causeways raised above the level of the marshes through stretches of marshland in the lower valley of the Po.