One  of  them  followed  the  coast  from  Puteoli  northwards,  till  it  joined  the
Appian  Way  at  Sinuessa,  on  the  borders  of  Latium  and  Campania.^  It
appears,  however,  that  this  road  was  not  constructed  till  the  reign  of
Domitian.'  Our  attention,  therefore,  is  called  to  the  other  cross-road
which  led  directly  to  Capua.  One  branch  of  it  left  the  coast  at  Cumae,
another  at  Puteoli.  It  was  called  the  "  Campaniau  Way,"  and  also  the
"  Consular  Way."  It  seems  to  have  been  constructed  during  the  Repub-
lic, and  was  doubtless  the  road  which  is  mentioned,  in  an  animated
passage  of  Horace's  Epistles,  as  communicating  with  the  baths  and  villas
of  Baiae.*

The  first  part,  then,  of  the  route  which  Julius  took  with  his  prisoners
was  probably  from  Puteoli  to  Capua.  All  the  region  near  the  coast,  how-
ever transformed  in  the  course  of  ages  by  the  volcanic  forces  which  are
still  at  work,  is  recognized  as  the  scene  of  the  earliest  Italian  mythology,
and  must  ever  be  impressive  from  the  poetic  images,  partly  of  this  world,
and  partly  of  the  next,  with  which  Virgil  has  filled  it.  From  Cumae  to
Capua,  the  road  traverses  a  more  prosaic  district : '  the  "  Phlegraean
fields  "  are  left  behind,  and  we  pass  from  the  scene  of  Italy's  dim  my-
thology to  the  theatre  of  the  most  exciting  passages  of  her  history.  The
whole  line  of  the  road  can  be  traced  at  intervals,  not  only  in  the  close
neighborhood  of  Puteoli  and  Capua,  but  through  the  intermediate  vil-
lages, by  fragments  of  pavement,  tombs,  and  ancient  milestones.®

Capua,  after  a  time  of  disgrace  had  expiated  its  friendship  with  Han-
nibal, was  raised  by  Julius  Caesar  to  the  rank  of  a  colony:  in  the  reign
of  Augustus  it  had  resumed  all  its  former  splendor ;  and  about  the  very
time  of  which  we  are  writing,  it  received  accessions  of  dignity  from  the
Emperor  Nero.     It  was  the  most  important  city  on  the  whole  line  of  the

had  they  lost  their  original  smoothness.    There  distances  are  slightly  different.    A  direct  road

is  great  doubt  as  to  the  date  of  the  continuation  from  Capua  to  Neapolis,  by  Atella,  is  men-

by  Beneventum   to  Brundusium,  nor  is   the  tioned  in  the  Tab.  Pent.
