Via Popilia

The Via Popilia is the name of two different ancient Roman roads begun in the consulship of Publius Popilius Laenas.

[2] It was possibly built by Publius Popilius Laenas, consul of 132 BC, who founded Forum Popilii marked on the Tabula Peutingeriana.

A milestone found in 1952 in Capua suggests that it was Annius who built and gave his name to the road, but he may have completed it.

[3] It ran a distance of 321 Roman miles (475 km) through southern Campania and Calabria, through the interior of the country, not along the coast.

It then followed another extinct branch of the river, the Sagis, and reached the Sacis Ad Padum mansio, where a canal which was probably commissioned by the emperor Nero started.

The road went through the Corniculani and Hadriani mansiones (perhaps in Codigoro and San Basiglio in the municipality of Ariano nel Polesine respectively).

It then reached the Septem Maria (Seven Seas),[7] which is indicated in the Antonine itinerary and was probably between Donada and Contarina in the municipality of Porto di Viro, close to Adria.

The fossa Clodia canal started here, at the River Tartaro, and reached today's Chioggia in the Lagoon of Venice.

[4] It is possible that in late antiquity, after Hadriani the coastal road followed a different course from that of the Popilia, which turned towards Atria but was not indicated in the Tabula Peutingeriana.