Via Appia - Along with the Royal Road of Persia, the Via Appia (Latin for Appian Way) was probably the most famous road in antiquity. Built in 312 B.C., it connected Rome to Capua, a distance of 132 miles (210km). The historian Livy credits its construction to Roman censor, Appius Claudius Caecus, for whom it is named. Famous for being the first road built outside the city of Rome, it is therefore also a symbol of Rome's expansion from city to empire. Around 295, it was extended to Benevenutum, and then within another five years to Tarentum, and finally to the port of Brindisi for a total length of 350 miles (560km). Eventually, Rome would go on to conquer the entire Mediterranean and would stretch their roads to every corner of their empire making travel throughout quite convenient. It's also exemplary of the engineering feats Rome was capable of. Roman engineers came up with a mortar using pozzolana, which was a volcanic ash, making their cement highly resistant to the elements.