prepared for the fulfilment of that commission. The
crooked places had been made straight, and the rough places smooth.
Along the roads which the Romans made throughout the world for the
march of their armies and the consolidation of their government, the
apostles, the soldiers of the Prince of Peace, marched to grander and
more enduring victories.

Of all the roads of ancient Rome the Via Appia was the oldest and most
renowned. It was called by the Romans themselves the _regina viarum_,
the "queen of roads." It was constructed by Appius Claudius the Blind,
during the Samnite War, when he was Censor, three hundred and thirteen
years before Christ, and led from Rome to Capua, being carried over
the Pontine Marshes on an embankment. It was afterwards extended to
Brindisi, the ancient seaport of Rome on the Adriatic, and became the
great highway for travellers from Rome to Greece and all the eastern
provinces of the Roman Empire. A curious link of connection may be
traced between the modern Italian expression, when drinking to a
person's health on leaving home, "far Brindisi," and the distant
termination of the Appian Way, suggestive, as of old, of farewell
wishes for a prosperous journey and a speedy return to the parting
guest. The way was paved throughout with broad hexagonal slabs of hard
lava, exactly fitted to each other; and here and there along its
course may still be seen important remains of it, which prove its
excellent workmanship. This method of constructing roads was borrowed
by the Romans from the Carthaginians, and was tried for the first time
on the Appian Way, all previous roads having been formed of sand and
gravel. The greatest breadth of the road was about twenty-six feet
between the curbstones; and on both sides were placed, at intervals of
forty feet, low columns, as seats for the travel-worn, and as helps in
mounting on horseback. Distances of five thousand feet were marked by
milestones, which were in the form of columnar shafts, elevated on
pedestals with appropriate inscriptions. The physical wants of the
traveller were provided for at inns judiciously disposed along the
route; while his religious wants were gratified by frequent statues of
Mercury, Apollo, Diana, Ceres, Hercules, and other deities, who
presided over highways and journeys, casting their sacred shadow over
his path. Some of the stones of the pavement still show the ruts of
the old chariot-wheels, and others are a good deal cracke