TheArch of Berà on the Via Augusta | |
Route of the Via Augusta | |
| Location | Roman province of Hispania (Spain, southern France) fromGades (Cádiz) toPertusium (Coll de Pertús) in thePyrenees |
|---|---|
| Type | Roman road |
| History | |
| Builder | Roman Empire,Augustus Caesar |
| Periods | 8 BC – 2 BC |
TheVia Augusta (also known as theVia Herculea orVia Exterior) was the longest and busiest of the majorroads built by the Romans in ancientHispania (theIberian Peninsula). According to historian Pierre Sillières, who has supervised excavation of Roman sites in Spain to identify the exact route followed by the Via Augusta, it was more a system of roads than a single road.[1][2] Approximately 1,500 km (930 mi) long, the Via Augusta was built to link Spain with Italy, running from the southwestern coastal city ofGades (Cádiz) to thePyrenees Mountains along inland valleys parallel to the coast of theMediterranean Sea. As the main axis of the road network in Roman Hispania,[3] it appears in ancient sources such as theitinerary inscribed on theVicarello Cups[4] as well in as theAntonine Itinerary.
The highway was named after the emperorAugustus, who ordered reconstruction of the previously existingVia Herculea (orVia Heraklea), which ran from the Pyrenees toCarthago Nova, and extension of the arterial roadway as far asGades.[5] The works were carried out between 8 BC and 2 BC,[6][7] taking advantage of what remained of roads that had existed in the time of theRoman Republic.[8] Subsequently, it became an important communications and trade route between the cities and provinces and the ports of the Mediterranean. The Via Augusta was still used by the Moors of southern Spain in the 10th century,[9] who called ital-Racif. Its route is currently followed by theN-340 road and theA-7 highway. North ofTarragona there remains a RomanTriumphal arch, theArc de Berà, around which the road divides. AtMartorell, the ancient Via crosses the riverLlobregat on thePont del Diable,[10] which dates from theHigh Middle Ages (circa 1289) in its current form. At present, the N-IV N-420, N-340 and the Mediterranean Highway ( A-7, AP-7, A-70 ) follow the same itinerary in many sections as the Vía Augusta. In some sections of the current N-340, the Roman road was used until the 1920s, when they were paved during the dictatorship ofPrimo de Rivera.
TheRoman Empire built roads extending to its far corners; once the Romans had conqueredHispania they began to build roads there as in their other territories.Hispania, the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula, included what is now Spain, Portugal,Andorra, and the southernmost part of France.[11] When Augustus went to Spain between 16 and 13 BC, he saw the need for roads and ordered the construction of the Via Augusta, the longest and most important road in Hispania.[12][13] The road passed from near the southern tip of present-day Spain on the Atlantic to the Mediterranean through theGuadalquivir valley and along the coast to theColl de Pertús (Latin: "Pertusium") pass in thePyrenees.[1][14]
The Via Augusta linkedHispania Baetica in the south with the north of Hispania. The still extant Alcantarilla bridge, a double arched stone bridge over the River Salado inUtrera, about 32 kilometres (20 mi) south of Seville,[15] has an inscription on thecutwater of one of its pilings indicating that it was on the Via Augusta. The Romans built a fifteen-arched bridge over the River Baetis (theGuadalquivir) atAndújar on the Augustan road.[16][17][18][19] In the second half of the 1st century, with the social stability brought by thePax Romana, the Roman city ofCarmo, nowCarmona, became a major crossroads on the Via Augusta and an important outpost in the Roman empire.
Several cities have traces of the roadbed, which roughly follows that of the current AP-7 motorway. There is a fairly long visible stretch in the municipality ofEl Perelló, in the province ofTarragona. TheArc de Berà is located on the section that passed just south of the city. The strategic position of Roman Barcelona (Barcino) on a spur road of the Via Augusta allowed the city's commercial and economic development.[20][21] In Barcelona, the ancient Via Augusta corresponds to one of the main avenues, also called "Via Augusta", in the Sarrià-Sant Gervasi district, which connects theAvinguda Diagonal with the Vallvidrera tunnels, passing through Plaça Molina. A large part of line 6 of theGeneralitat of Catalonia Railways passes underneath the Via Augusta roadbed.

The RomanArch of Cabanes, in the flat area known asPla de l'arc, 19 kilometres (12 mi) northwest ofCastellón in theValencian Country, crosses the Via Augusta,[22] which followed the inland valley in the province. This arch is now located in a roundabout of the CV-157 that still retains a certain resemblance to the appearance of the ancient Roman roads due to the rows of trees lining both sides of the highway, although the original route of the Via Augusta, which today is marked in many regions as a livestock route, does not always coincide with the current roads. However, the CV-157 road does not follow the southwest–northeast orientation that the Via Augusta followed in almost all its route, but rather west–east. This is because, as in other regions of Spain (e.g., Barcelona, Cabanes, and Tarragona), the Via Augusta crossed sparsely populated areas, generally along interior valleys parallel to the coast, so that almost all the Roman cities, especially those on the coast, were reached by secondary roads perpendicular to the Via Augusta. Branches used for military purposes also ran to the interior.[23]
The Via Augusta is documented and referenced in two central places inValencia: the first is next to theValencia Cathedral in the Almoina Archaeological Centre, which houses archaeological excavations made between 1985 and 2005 that revealedstratigraphic layers representing successive eras of the city's history,[24] and the second place is next to the oldPalace of the Borgias, now theValencian Parliament. A few tens of metres of the pavement of the road can be found in the Almoina Museum, as well as remains of sixCorinthian Order columns of the Temple of the Nymphs (Templo de las Ninfas) from the same period,[25][26] a stone well, and remains of Visigothic and Arab houses. There are also milestones in San Vicente street (the city exit to the south) and in the Alameda de Valencia (the cityesplanade).
The city ofLorca (known asEliocroca in Roman times) in theprovince of Murcia has several vestiges of the Via Augusta, including two Roman columns, theSan Vicente Ferrer and the Baldazos milestones (La Hoya), respectively, of Emperor Augustus (8–7 BC) and EmperorConstantius Chlorus, preserved in the Archaeological Museum of Lorca (Museo Arqueológico de Lorca). The milestone of Constantius Chlorus was found in 1929 at Baldazos, in the Diputación of La Hoya, six km from Lorca.[27] During Roman times this hamlet was amansio,[28] or official stopping place. Another milestone, the El Hornillo milestone, was found by a citizen on 5 February 2013 in the course of the RiverGuadalentín, upstream from Lorca;[29][30] Like the San Vicente Ferrer column, this column dates to the reign of Caesar Augustus; it is currently on display in the vestibule of the Museo Arqueológico de Lorca (MUAL).[31]
The Column of San Vicente Ferrer, dating to the reign of Caesar Augustus (CIL II 4937) is inscribed:
IMP. Caesar. DIVI. F. / AVGVSTUS. CONS. XI / TRIBVNIC. POTEST. XVI / IMP. XIIII. PONTIFEX. / MAX / M. P. XXVIII.
This is the abbreviated form of:
IMPERATOR CAESAR DIVI FILIVS / AGVSTVS CONSVL XI / TRIBVNICIA POTESTATE XVI / IMPERATOR XIIII PONTIFEX. / MAXIMVS / MILLE PASSVS XXVIII
The inscription translated to English reads:
Emperor Caesar Augustus, son of the Divine, Consul for the 11th time, his 16th year of tribunal power, General in 14 campaigns andChief High Priest, mile 28 [from Carthago Nova (Cartagena) towards Eliocroca (Lorca}][27]
The Via Augusta was the great imperial road of Spain, and as a continuation of theViasJulia Augusta,Aemilia, andFlaminia, it formed a major link in a chain of roads connecting Rome with the Atlantic Ocean.[32] Its usage allowed the development of cities such as Valentia (Valencia), Saguntum (Sagunto), Lucentum (Alicante), Saetabis (Xàtiva), and Ilici (Elche).[33] The Roman road engineers naturally considered the surrounding environment and the slope of the land when determining the course of the road, taking into account the existing oldIberian roads as well. The average width was between four and six metres, although there are some sections that were ten or fourteen metres wide. The sidewalks (margines orcrepidines), built only near the cities, were between three and ten metres wide on each side.[34]
Starting from Coll de Pertús pass in the Pyrenees, the Via Augusta ran south and southwest to the upper reaches of the River Baetis, and from that area on through Baetica to Gades. From the point where the road crossed the Baetis, however, a new system began. The river in that region formed the boundary between Baetica and Tarraconensis, and there a bridge with an arch, theIanus Augusti, was erected in honor of Augustus. From this arch all the rest of the milestones on the way to Gades were numbered.[35]
Milestones were placed on the edge of Roman roads to indicate distances betweencapitas (starting points), at a distance of a thousand paces between the milestones (a pace was a Roman double step called amille passum) equivalent to a Roman mile, i.e., 1.480 metres, hence its name. The milestones were cylindrical stone columns of granite or sandstone between 2 and 3 metres high and 50 to 80 cm in diameter, set on a square base.[36] They were inscribed with information referring to the road: the name of the builder or restorer, the name of the nearest station and the distance, and sometimes the point of departure (caput viae) or of arrival (terminus viae).[7]

The construction of the Via Augusta was undertaken within the context of the administrative reorganisation of the provinces of Hispania initiated by Augustus. The immediate precedent of this roadbuilding project was the network of roads, theVia Agrippa, built inGaul under the supervision ofMarcus Vipsanius Agrippa at Augustus' command in 20-19 BC.Strabo (IV, 6, 11) alludes to Agrippa's laying out of the roadways.[37][38] Agrippa then went to Hispania in 19-18 BC to personally direct thewar against the Cantabrians in the north of the peninsula; Augustus himself returned to Hispania and remained for a period between 16 and 13 BC doing administrative work.[39] He and his advisors set about devising an ambitious programme to restructure the administration of the territory, its primary objectives being the establishment of new cities, the construction of roads connecting them, and the distribution of large areas of land to be parcelled out among veteran professional soldiers.[40]
With the complete subjugation of Hispania, Augustus determined to lay out a proper road system like that which Agrippa had built in Gaul, and the basic network appears to have been completed in his reign. He repaired and relaid the coastal road from Tarraco (the imperial headquarters during his residence, Augustus made it the capital ofHispania Tarraconensis), through Valentia to Carthago Nova (Cartagena), as well as the road through the Baetis valley by way of Corduba andHispalis to Gades itself, and in this section a large number of milestones bearing his name have been found.[41]
The isolation of Hispania from the rest of the Mediterranean world was a circumstance addressed by the building of Augustus' road network. The itineraries and milestones, as well as traces of the ancient roads, suggest that this was an intensive project. There were four important routes between theconventus capitals of Bracara Augusta (Braga) and Asturica Augusta (Astorga), the third hub of the system being the conventus capital Lucus Augusti (Lugo).[42] Caesaraugusta (Zaragoza) and Carthago Nova were conventus capital cities that were also crossroads and the terminuses (capita) of roads.[32]
Augustus ordered the building of the road from Caesaraugusta to Tarragona, passing through Ilerda (Lerida) and Huesca. Domitian extended the road from Caesaraugusta to Olispo (Lisbon), by way of Toletum (Toledo) and Augusta Emerita. The latter city was the starting point of theroad (later the so-called "silver way"), which passed northward throughSalamanca toOceloduri.[43] There it met the road following the course of theEbro and then into the region of north-central Hispania. Asturica Augusta, theterminus of the "silver route", was an important junction, where the highways to Lusitania and the Cantabrian coast intersected. It later became the celebrated pilgrimage road toSantiago de Compostela. In the south, Emerita and Gades were connected by the Hispalis road. In Hispalis the road joined the branch of the Via Augusta which started inAcci (also Accitum) and veered inland to Corduba, Astigi (Écija), and Carmo. This was the main layout of the Roman road system in Hispania; together with the network of localised roads, they covered about 21,000 km (13,000 mi).[3]
Milestones indicate the roads laid out by Augustus from Bracara to Asturica through Lucus Augusti, from Caesaraugusta to Juliobriga (Reinosa), from Emerita (Mérida) to Hispalis (Seville), penetrating the rich mining district of the Montes Mariani, and from Carthago Nova to Castulo (Cazorla), another mining region.[44] There was a road built by him fromIlerda to Caesaraugusta, crossing theEbro by a wooden bridge according to Strabo, and apparently one from Aesuris toPax Julia, up the course of the riverAnas. Augustus had surrounded Hispania with a great circle of roads, with one or two branches reaching inland. In contrast to Gaul, where Agrippa had laid out four or five roads radiating from a central hub, here there was the perimeter of a wheel, so to speak, and it was the task of succeeding emperors to fill in the spokes and build more direct cross-country routes.[41]
The Via Augusta was originally avia militaris, i.e., a military road built bylegionaries of theRoman army; these units constructed a substantial part of the road network, especially at the beginning of the empire. These roads remained strategically important, but their main purpose was for general communications, as shown by an inscription on a fragmentary milestone found near Corduba (Córdoba). Here, in the year 90,Domitian ordered the restoration of the Via Augusta, which had fallen into disrepair. This section of the road was designated avia miltaris, according to the inscription:
VIAM AVGVSTAM MILITAREM / VETVSTATE CORRVPTAM RESTITVIT.[45]
In English:
He restored the via militaris Augusta, which had become dilapidated through old age.[45]
English: The main Roman road traversing the province of Córdoba was the Via Augusta, built by order of the emperor, and taking advantage of the network of roads that had existed since the era of the Roman Republic. The road communicated Rome with Gades, passing through Tarraco, Carthago Nova and the four capitals of the legal convents of Betica (Corduba, Astigi, Hispalis and Gades). This was a public road built and maintained by the Roman administration, on which thecursus publicus, or the courier and transportation system of the imperial administration, was established. Therefore, the Via Augusta facilitated the government and administration of the province of Baetica, as well as the movement of the armies when necessary.