VIA

AURELIA  , an ancient highroad of Italy, the date of the construction of which is unknown . It ran from Rome to Alsium, where it reached the sea, and thence along the south-west coast of Italy, perhaps originally only as far as Cosa, and was later extended to Vada Volaterrana, and in 109 B.C. to Genua and Dertona by means of the Via Aemilia, though a coast road as far as Genua at least must have existed long before . The name is applied in the Antonine Itinerary to these extensions, and even to the prolongation to Arles . Its line is in the main closely followed by the modern coast highroad; cf., however, for the section between Cosa and Populonia, O . Cuntz in Jahreshefte des Ostem arch . Instituts, vii . (1904), 54• (T .