 Hey guys, it's Darius for Ancient Rome Live. We've been traveling down the Via Apia Antica and this episode we're departing again from Beneventum and we're going to take the coastal route. This becomes known as the Via Apia Traiana because it gets monumentalized by the Emperor Trajan. I'm going to go all the way down to Bari, Iniazia and conclude in Brindisi. Be sure to subscribe so you get every episode of this epic adventure down the Via Apia from Rome to Brindisi. There's an important fork in the road at Beneventum. The interior route was the Via Apia, but a coastal route always existed in the Republican period not for travelers and pilgrims, but rather for wagons pulling goods. And it's that coastal route under the reign of Trajan that it becomes monumentalized. Probably the route was originally the Via Minuncha, but under Trajan it becomes the Via Apia Traiana, a true shortcut to Brindisi. Let's explore that route today. Little known sights? Forgotten bridges. It's quite the adventure to Brindisi. Pretty spectacular walking in Herdonia. A sight hidden from most eyes of the public. It's well worth the effort. Driving out of dirt road through an olive grove down a path and you have this magnificent sight all to yourself. The city of Herdonia was first a Donian settlement then Greek and finally Roman. It was the site of two battles won by Hannibal between 212 and 210 BC during the Second Punic War. Located along the Republican Via Minuncha, it flourished with the construction of the Via Apia Traiana. The excavated portion of the city is a large forum framed by porticoes with a central temple, a well-preserved McKellan for the sale of foodstuffs and a large basilica. Elsewhere in the city are the remains of an amphitheater and bath complex. Herdonia was largely abandoned by the 4th century. They rediscovered with excavations in 1962. This is amazing. I feel like we've made a huge discovery here. This is today called Ponte da Diavolo and what it is is one of the many archeological sites that people have forgotten about in Italy. So this is the bridge that ultimately will be used for the Via Traiana but we think by the way which is constructed, it actually dates back to the time at least of Horus. So when Horus is in Beneventum and he wants to take a deviated route all the way along the coast to go to Brindisi, he would have gone over this very bridge. So it's going to predate the Via Traiana and it's served to link up Erpinia down to Lucania and downy at regions. So we're really transitioning from Campania in Zipulia and it's just one of those great structures that at this point is overgrown, it needs restoration work and yet it still has resisted the test of time and it's a site worth exploring. This is an impressive bridge, it's over 10 meters high and the entire section here is over 200 meters long so it's an impressive well preserved bridge and we can take a look at it and we can see the various phases of restoration. Just think that cars are driving over this bridge, this ancient bridge until the 1960s and we can take a look and see all the various signs of previous restorations over the centuries. When we take a closer look today we see that it does need, it's in dire need of new restoration, new conservation. It's not that hard to get to but you just have to know that it exists in the first place. It's a place worth exploring and admiring Roman history, Roman engineering. This Ponte Romano, this Roman bridge, Trajanic in date and it is magnificent, we're in the middle of a more glorious countryside of Puglia and this is part of the Via Apietraiana. So it's that other route, it takes over a previously existing road called the Via Menuncha but under Trajan it becomes a much more efficient road, it becomes a more impressive road which means it's going to have things like this, bridges that withstand the test of time. Located in today's Canosa di Puglia, the imperial dated bridge was nearby the famous city of Cannae, the infamous site of Hannibal's massacre of Roman troops on August 2, 216 BC. After an earthquake in 1731 the Bourbons reconstructed this bridge as we see it today. On the same location, still passing over the Ophanto river, part of the coastal Via Trajana road to Brindisi. Bari, known in antiquity as Barium, was a pre-Roman yapidgin site that was heavily influenced by the Greeks. It became Roman by the 3rd century BC and an important juncture between the early coastal road and the later Via Trajana. It boasted an important harbor for trade and fishing throughout its history. After the fall of the Roman Empire it was under the sway of the Lungobards and the Byzantines and for a number of centuries in the Middle Ages it thrived as an important slave trading center. A new age began with the arrival of the Normans in 1071. The church of San Nicola was created in 1087 for the relics of the saint brought from Mirra in modern-day Turkey. Bari became an important pilgrimage site that is still prominent today. Located between Bari and Brindisi, Enyatia began as an important yapidgin, then in the 5th century Mesopic and Greek site, with its acropolis overlooking the sea. Under the Romans it further developed, especially as it was along the coastal route to Brindisi. And more importantly in the 2nd century BC its harbor accommodated transport across the Adriatic to the Balkans and the beginning of the Via Enyatia of the 2nd century BC that extended all the way to mainland Greece. Under Agrippa the harbor was further enhanced through a substantial man-made harbor, portions of which are still visible beneath the water. In the city, we can admire the well-preserved forum space, a round piazza for the use of the worshippers of Magna Mater, a large basilica or law court, and a well-preserved bath complex. And in the imperial period, the Via Triana passed right through the city, its impressive remains really stand out. This is a rich site, with shops and neighborhoods exposed, and the site museum is filled with artifacts that trace the rise and eventual decline of the city, including a substantial Christian phase from the 4th to 7th century. Brindisi is the city of the sea, and of course we have those famous column markers overlooking the harbor, but next to the cathedral we have an archeological museum, and we can explore the rich collection of inscriptions and marble statuary and bronze. Fished out from the sea, it underlines the great wealth of the Roman Empire and the importance of Brindisi as a harbor for facilitating the traffic of precious goods. So many bronze statues, we've had quite an adventure. All good things come to an end, and after the Viapia, there's nothing but the beauty of the sea and the expanse of the Roman Empire. Hey, we're back in the Circus Maximus, we're back where we started, the starting point of the Viapia, and what an epic ride it's been. We've gone hundreds of miles, we've gone through two different routes of the Viapia, both the historic one down the Taranto over to Brindisi, and then the imperial one created in a monumental way by the Emperor Trajan, starting from Benevento and going all the way along the coast, ending up in Brindisi. Now another thing to mention is that the Viapia as a whole is now being put forward as a new world heritage site by Italy. I think you've seen in our voyage just how amazing the Viapia really is, just how much is so well preserved, just how much there is to discover, just how much there is still to preserve. So it's been a real pleasure to accompany you on this journey on ancient roads, driving along various highways, beautiful landscapes to really understand just how amazing the ancient Romans were as surveyors and engineers and ultimately successful in the military and finally as states people that they were able to co-opt the cities, the ideas, the cultures of various people throughout Italy, all along the Viapia. Don't forget you can support our efforts here on Ancient Rome Live or non-profit. We need your support. We need your donations to make more epic content in Rome and throughout the Empire. Get in touch with us. Make suggestions of future video topics. Get involved in Rome. We will give you all this great history live from Ancient Rome. 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