Ab Asturica Burdigalam (numbered as Via XXXIV on the

Antonine Itinerary The Antonine Itinerary ( la, Itinerarium Antonini Augusti, "The Itinerary of the Emperor Antoninus") is a famous ''itinerarium'', a register of the stations and distances along various roads. Seemingly based on official documents, possibly ...

) was a

Roman road Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...

that linked the towns of ''Asturica Augusta'' (modern Astorga) in Gallaecia and ''Burdigala'' (modern Bordeaux) in

Aquitania Gallia Aquitania ( , ), also known as Aquitaine or Aquitaine Gaul, was a province of the Roman Empire. It lies in present-day southwest France, where it gives its name to the modern region of Aquitaine. It was bordered by the provinces of Gallia ...

. The

mentions that it ran through ''Pallantia'' ( Palencia), the pass of Vindeleia, Veleia, Pompaelo ( Pamplona),

Iturissa Iturissa was a Roman town in north-west Spain in the province of Hispania Tarraconensis, now the province and autonomous community of Navarre. Iturissa was mentioned by Ptolemy in the second century as "a town of the Vascones." The name ''Ituriss ...

( Identified by some as Aurizberri/ Espinal, and others as

Burguete – Auritz Burguete ( Castilian) or Auritz (Basque) is a town and municipality located in the province and autonomous community of Navarre, northern Spain. Ernest Hemingway lodged in Burguete in 1924 and 1925 for a fishing trip to the Irati river, and desc ...

) and the ''Summo Pyreneo'' ( Roncevaux pass), among other places. A. Blázquez, ''Nuevo estudio sobre el "Itinerario" de Antonino''
/ref> In medieval times it would be largely replaced by the

Way of St. James The Camino de Santiago ( la, Peregrinatio Compostellana, "Pilgrimage of Compostela"; gl, O Camiño de Santiago), known in English as the Way of St James, is a network of pilgrims' ways or pilgrimages leading to the shrine of the Twelve Apostle ...

that, while coincident in some parts with the Roman road, it goes further south between Pamplona and Astorga. This route was probably followed by the Vandals, Alans and

Suebi The Suebi (or Suebians, also spelled Suevi, Suavi) were a large group of Germanic peoples originally from the Elbe river region in what is now Germany and the Czech Republic. In the early Roman era they included many peoples with their own names ...

when they invaded Hispania in the 5th century, and with certainty by Charlemagne and other less famed Frankish expeditions against Pamplona. The Basque section of the road was still in use when Napoleon invaded Spain between 1808 and 1814 and was known for a time as the "Route of Napoleon".

References

Roman roads in Spain Basque history Roman roads in Gaul {{AncientRome-stub