 Hey guys, it's Darius for Ancient Rome Live. We're traveling along the Via Apia, and in this episode, after Beneventum, we've got a fork, and we're going to be exploring one of two major arteries. In this episode, we're going to descend down Italy, all the way to Taranto, concluding in Brindisi. It's an epic journey. Make sure you subscribe so you hit every single episode. We're going to go all the way down to Brindisi. Aclanum is a Samnite site along the Via Apia. Spoiler alert, it gets this magnificent bath complex in the reign of Hadrian. You'd like to get a little piece of Imperial Rome right here in Campania. Aclanum has its origins as a Samnite city, and probably by about the end of the 3rd century BC, it is a Roman town, and the Via Apia passes right through it. Next historically, it's in the records as being destroyed, essentially, heavily attacked by Sulla during the Social War between 1987 and by 87, it has Munikipium status. So we're talking about a place today. It feels very isolated in Campania, but it was a strategically located area in the hinterland in Campania, sloping down to Puglia. So this is a site which has a lot of history, and it takes on colonial status under the Emperor Hadrian, and you can see the remains of the baths that he bestows upon the city in the 2nd century AD. It also has some well-preserved mosaics. Wandering through the bath complex during the time of Hadrian, magnificently built on the slopes here just outside the city center that the Via Apia once ran through. Ultimately, this becomes a Christian town, and there are the remains of a Paleo-Christian site dating to the 6th century AD, attributed to the time of Justinian, and the Baptistry is visible still within the site. So I'm walking along an ancient road. This is Venusia. Venusia is dedicated to Aphrodite or Venus. It is taken over by the Romans in the Samite Wars as early as 291, and when we get to 190, it's at that point the Via Apia is extended to this town. It's an active participant in the Social War. It's a place for veterans in 43, the Triumvirs, and ultimately takes on an imperial shape with a large amphitheater in the time of Augustus into Nero and even Trajan and Hadrian. This is the best preserved road of Venusia. It's not the Via Apia, but the Via Apia came right here to Venusia on the way to Brindisi, and this is a substantial road. So you know it's a public road. You know it was taking wheel traffic. There are sidewalks on either side of the road, and we can take a look at this stone. It's local, and it's a substantial effort. So we want to think about the permanence of Roman roads, and it's when they're making them like this akin to what they're doing for the Via Apia, it allows these roads to stand the test of time. Think about that life that was on this road. The bath complex is on one side, a residential complex with shops on the other. This was a place teeming with activity, teeming with life centuries ago. The impressive remains of imperial baths are visible on the site with black and white mosaics. You can explore the bathing facilities and the elevated hypocost system where the hot air once passed underneath through fires stoked by slaves in the perfernium or furnace areas. There's a substantial area of private residences and businesses still visible in use into the fifth and sixth centuries AD in the northeastern portion of the city. That's where you have the installation of Christian structures, including a paleo-christian church with a baptistry and a very large apps. And still next to it later, there's the unfinished church dating to the 11th or 12th century right here in the heart of Inusia. It's amazing here just driving down the Taranto and just the train is just dropping down here. It's amazing and it's just a huge wide open plain and I think that most of this territory was under the dominion of Taranto for a long time and then the Romans showed up. Ancient Tarentum was founded as the Greek city Taras in 706 BC. Given its position on the sea with the protective harbour and inner lagoon harbour, it came to dominate southern Italy and became rich in Greek arts and architecture. Portions of the early 6th century Doric temple of Poseidon still stand today. As Rome progressed down the peninsula, marked with the extension of the Via Apia, confrontation with Taranto was inevitable. Rome had the upper hand, so the Tarantines called on King Appyrus of Appyrus for help. His impressive tactics and use of war elephants initially stunned the Romans, but they eventually overcame his early wins, his Pyrrhic victories and definitively conquered Taranto by 272 BC. Beyond Taranto, Rome extended the Via Apia onward to Brindisi, a city that offered a shorter naval route to the Greek mainland. But Taranto remained a city hostile to Rome and sided with Hannibal in the Second Punic War. In response, Rome later sacked the city. Much of the Greek city's treasures from pottery to sculpture are on display in the city's rich archaeological museum, attesting to its Hellenic legacy. In the Roman era, Taranto's rich heritage lived on, as of Roman Municipium by 90 BC. Many statues and mosaics on display underlined the city's wealth in the Roman period as well. After Rome's conquest of Tarantum, Brindisium came under Roman control in 266 BC. The city's name, Stagshed, came from the shape of its inner harbor. It sided with Taranto and Hannibal in the Second Punic War. Afterward, it was a thriving port, facilitating goods and people, oftentimes soldiers, to and from the Greek world. How was the end of the Via Apia marked? Traditionally, people have looked at these two second century columns. The remaining preserved capital is decorated with divine figures. The columns were nearly 19 meters high, probably once sustaining marble or metal statues of important figures, such as Roman emperors, visible to boats arriving in the port. It has come to symbolize the end of Rome's Queen of Roads. Standing right here at the end of the Via Apia, these columns, one has been moved over to Lece, but these columns once marked the end of the magnificent Queen of All Roads, the Via Apia, which culminated here after 500 kilometers. Brindisi and beyond is the gateway to the east, it's the gateway to Greece and conquest. We've completed the traditional route of the Via Apia all the way to Brindisi, but there's still the coastal route, the Via Apia Traiana. Join us next time from Rome to Brindisi. Thanks for joining us on Ancient Rome Live. You can find a lot more content on our website ancientromelive.org and of course you can also donate so that we can make more fantastic content. We're so excited about Ancient Rome and Empire and all that has been left behind throughout the Mediterranean. Let us know in the comments what you'd like us to make next.