Via Salaria

File:Map of Roman roads in Italy.png

Route of Via Salaria (in gray).

The Via Salaria was an ancient Roman road in Italy.

It eventually ran from Rome (from Porta Salaria of the Aurelian Walls) to Castrum Truentinum (Porto d'Ascoli) on the Adriatic coast, a distance of 242 km. The road also passed through Reate (Rieti) and Asculum (Ascoli Piceno). The Via Salaria owes its name to the Latin word for "salt", since it was the route by which the Sabines came to fetch salt from the marshes at the mouth of the Tiber, one of many ancient salt roads in Europe. Some historians consider the Salaria and the trade in salt to have been the origin of the settlement of Rome. Some remains still exist of the mountain sections of the road.

A modern road by this name, part of the SS4 highway, runs 51 km from Rome to Osteria Nuova.

Roman bridges

For an overview of the location of Roman bridges, see List of Roman bridges.

There are the remains of several Roman bridges along the road, including the Ponte del Gran Caso, Ponte della Scutella, Ponte d’Arli, Ponte di Quintodecimo, Ponte Romano (Acquasanta), Ponte Salario and Ponte Sambuco.

See also

• Roman bridge
• Roman engineering
• Catacomb of Priscilla

External links

• Via Salaria (Platner and Ashby's A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, London: Oxford University Press, 1929)