The Via Salaria was an ancient Roman road in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. It eventually ran from

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

(from

Porta Salaria Porta Salaria was a gate in the Aurelian Walls of Rome, Italy. Constructed between 271 AD and 275 AD, it was finally demolished in 1921. History Porta Salaria was part of the Aurelian Walls built by emperor Aurelian in the 3rd century, inclu ...

of the Aurelian Walls) to ''Castrum Truentinum'' (

Porto d'Ascoli Porto d'Ascoli (Ascoli's Harbour) is a modern residential quarter of San Benedetto del Tronto in the Province of Ascoli Piceno, Marche region. History It commemorates in its name the building of a port, in 1245, at the end of Tronto river, buil ...

) on the

Adriatic coast The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Sea) to the ...

, a distance of 242 km. The road also passed through Reate ( Rieti) and

Asculum Asculum, also known as Ausculum, was the ancient name of two Italian cities. The first is Ascoli Piceno, the ''Ausculum'' in ancient Picenum (modern Marche). It is situated in the valley of the Truentus (mod. Tronto) river on the via Salaria. I ...

( Ascoli Piceno). Strada statale 4 Via Salaria (SS4) is the modern

state highway A state highway, state road, or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road, or provincial route) is usually a road that is either ''numbered'' or ''maintained'' by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered by a ...

that maintains the old road's name and runs on the same path from Rome to the

Adriatic sea The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Sea) to t ...

History

The Via Salaria owes its name to the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

word for "salt", since it was the route by which the

Sabines The Sabines (; lat, Sabini; it, Sabini, all exonyms) were an Italic people who lived in the central Apennine Mountains of the ancient Italian Peninsula, also inhabiting Latium north of the Anio before the founding of Rome. The Sabines divid ...

living nearer the

Tyrrhenian sea The Tyrrhenian Sea (; it, Mar Tirreno , french: Mer Tyrrhénienne , sc, Mare Tirrenu, co, Mari Tirrenu, scn, Mari Tirrenu, nap, Mare Tirreno) is part of the Mediterranean Sea off the western coast of Italy. It is named for the Tyrrhenian pe ...

came to fetch salt from the marshes at the mouth of the river

Tiber The Tiber ( ; it, Tevere ; la, Tiberis) is the third-longest List of rivers of Italy, river in Italy and the longest in Central Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio, where ...

, the Campus Salinarum (near

Portus Portus was a large artificial harbour of Ancient Rome. Sited on the north bank of the north mouth of the Tiber, on the Tyrrhenian coast, it was established by Claudius and enlarged by Trajan to supplement the nearby port of Ostia. The archae ...

). Peoples nearer the

Adriatic Sea The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Sea) to t ...

used it to fetch it from production sites there. It was one of many ancient

salt road A salt road (also known as a salt route, salt way, saltway, or salt trading route) refers to any of the prehistoric and historical trade routes by which essential salt was transported to regions that lacked it. From the Bronze Age (in the 2nd m ...

s in Europe, and some historians consider the Salaria and the trade in salt to have been the origin of the settlement of Rome. Some remains still exist of the mountain sections of the road.

Roman bridges

There are the remains of several Roman bridges along the road, including the

Ponte del Gran Caso Ponte, a word meaning ''bridge'' in Italian, Portuguese, and Galician languages, may refer to: Places England *Pontefract, a town in the Metropolitan City of Wakefield France * Ponte Leccia, a civil parish (hameau) in the department of Haute-Co ...

, Ponte della Scutella, Ponte d’Arli,

Ponte di Quintodecimo The Ponte di Quintodecimo is a Roman stone bridge over the river Tronto next to the village of Quintodecimo, Marche, central Italy. The bridge consists of a main arch spanning the river and 2 smaller arches connecting the road to the bridge. The ...

, Ponte Romano (Acquasanta),

Ponte Salario The Ponte Salario, also called Ponte Salaro during the Middle Ages, is a road bridge in Rome, Italy, whose origins date back to the Roman period. In antiquity, it lay outside the city limits, 3 km north of the Porta Collina, at the point whe ...

and Ponte Sambuco.

References

External links

Via Salaria (Platner and Ashby's ''A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome'', London: Oxford University Press, 1929)
Salaria, Via Transport in Lazio Transport in le Marche Transport in Abruzzo Rome Q. II Parioli Rome Q. III Pinciano Rome Q. IV Salario Rome Q. XVII Trieste {{Italy-road-stub

History

Roman bridges

See also

References

External links