Dictionaries :: Appii Forum

Appii Forum:

i.e., "the market of Appius" (Act 28:15, R.V.), a town on the road, the "Appian Way," from Rome to Brundusium. It was 43 miles from Rome. Here Paul was met by some Roman Christians on his way to the capital. It was natural that they should halt here and wait for him, because from this place there were two ways by which travellers might journey to Rome.

Appii Forum:

ap'-i-i fo'-rum, transliteration of Lat; ap'-i-us, APPIUS, MARKET OF (Revised Version) (Appiou phoron): Appi Forum Cicero ad Att. 2.10; Suetonius Tib. 2: Appii Forum; Vulgate Revised Verson: Forum Appi; Horace Satires i.5; Pliny, Nat. Hist., iii.64; xiv.61; CIL, X, 6824, or Market of Appius, was a town situated at the forty-third milestone on the Appian Road (39 1/2 English miles from Rome, a single day's journey for energetic travelers) according to the imperial itineraries (Ant., 108; Hierosol. 611; Geog. Rav. 4.34). Its existence probably dates from the time of Appius Claudius Caecus (Suet. Tib. 2; compare Mommsen, Rom. Forsch., I, 308), who laid out the famous highway from Rome to Capua in 312 BC. In the 1st century it had the rank of a municipality (Pliny, iii.64). Its importance as a highway station is due chiefly to the canal which ran by the side of the road from there to within a short distance of Tarracina (at the sixty-second milestone), affording an alternative means of conveyance (Strabo v.3.6). It was customary to cover this section of the journey, passing through the Pontine Marshes, by night in canal boats drawn by mules. Horace (Sat. i.5) offers a lively picture of the discomforts of the trip, mentioning the importunate inn-keepers and intolerable drinking water at Appii Forum, the gnats and frogs which were enemies to repose, and the exasperating procrastination of the muleteer.

The Christian brethren in Rome went out along the Appian Road to welcome the apostle Paul upon hearing of his arrival at Puteoli. One party awaited him at Three Taverns while another proceeded as far as Appii Forum Ac 28:15).

Written by George H. Allen

Appii Forum:

(market‐place of Appius) a well‐known station on the Appian Way, the great road which led from Rome to the neighborhood of the Bay of Naples (Acts 28:15). There is no difficulty in identifying the site with some ruins near Treponti. SEE [THREE TAVERNS, THE].