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 p562  Via Flaminia

Articles on pp562‑563 and p564 of

Samuel Ball Platner (as completed and revised by Thomas Ashby):
A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome,
London: Oxford University Press, 1929.

Via Flaminia: * (Not. app.; Eins. 4.10): constructed in 220 B.C. during the censor­ship of C. Flaminius (Liv. Epit. XX.; Strabo V.217 wrongly ascribes it to C. Flaminius the younger) from Rome to Ariminum. Its importance led to its having a special curator as early as 65 B.C. (Cic. ad Att. I.1.2), and it was restored by Augustus himself in 27 B.C. (Mon. Anc. IV.19; Suet. Aug. 30; Cass. Dio LIII.22; Cohen, Aug. 229‑235, 541‑544=BM Aug. 79‑81, 432‑436). It was a much frequented road (Strabo V.227; Tac. Hist. I.86; II.64), and the four silver cups of about the time of Trajan, found at Vicarello, on which is the itinerary by land from Rome to Gades, prove this (CIL XI.3281‑3284). Cf. Hist. Aug. Maximin. 25.2.

The road gave its name to one of the districts of Italy as early as the second century A.D. We have epigraphic testimony of the importance of the traffic on it (praef. vehiculorum a copis Aug. per viam Flaminiam CIL X.7585; praepositus [cursualis] de via Flabinia (sic) ib. VI.33714). For milestones and other inscriptions relating to repairs, cf. CIL XI.6619, sqq.

The via Flaminia started in a north-north‑west direction from a gate of the Servian wall on the east slope of the Capitol which had wrongly been identified with the Porta Ratumena, though later topographers identify it with the Porta Fontinalis (RhM 1894, 411; see also HJ 479, 484). It turned slightly westward a little before passing the tomb of Bibulus (q.v.), and passing the so‑called tomb of the Claudii, resumed its former direction.  p563 It then ran across the campus Martius, forming the boundary between the seventh and ninth regions of Augustus, and on in an absolutely straight line to the pons Mulvius, a distance of about 3 miles. Burial on it was regarded as a special honour; cf. Stat. Silv. II.1.176; Mart. VI. 28, 29; VIII.75.1, 2 (see Via Tecta); XI.13; Iuv. I.170; see HJ 462‑464, 471, 484, 491‑492, 621. The part within the Aurelian walls was known as the via Lata from the fourth century A.D. onwards. The modern Corso coincides absolutely with the ancient line, and the two churches which flank it where it ends in the Piazza del Popolo both stand on ancient tombs, while many other tombs were sacrificed for the construction of the Porta Flaminia.

The cura of the road was generally held alone (CIL II.4126, 4510 (cf. XIV.3599); VI.1333, 1529, 3836; X.5061; Rev. Arch. 1889, I.426, n. 92; BC 1891, 111), but once appears associated with that of the Tiburtina​1 (CIL XIV.2933; BC 1891, 108‑112).

The curatores of the via Clodia, which diverged from the via Flaminia at the pons Mulvius, had under them the via Cassia and a variety of other roads (the Annia, Ciminia, tres Traianae, Amerina; BC 1891, 100‑107; for the relative antiquity of the Clodia and Cassia, cf. Mél. 1913, 192, 206, 240‑244).

See RE VI.2493‑2496; T. I.375‑587; X.199‑375; JRS 1921, 125‑190.

 p564  Via Lata: the later name for the intramural portion of the Via Flaminia, which first occurs in the Notitia as the name of Reg. VII (CIL XV.7186, 7187 are even later). It frequently occurs in the liber Pontificalis, and is perpetuated in that of the church of S. Maria in via Lata first mentioned as one of the churches to which Leo gave gifts in 806 (LP xcviii. c70; HJ 462, 463; HCh 376).

The Authors' Note:

1 This is somewhat doubtful, for only the letters TI (?) were preserved; and the inscription has apparently disappeared. Cf. p569, n2. Hülsen prefers to read Ti[berinae], though this road is only mentioned in Not. App. (see Mem. AP I.2.130).

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