Following Caesar

July 1, 2023

In Following Caesar, veteran journalist Keahey highlights ancient Roman history by traversing the Via Appia, built from Rome to Brindisi between 312 and 191 BCE and reconstructed by Caesar in the first century BCE; its sister road, the Via Egnatia, connecting Rome and Byzantium; and the Via Traiana, built in the first century CE to circumvent a crumbling portion of the Via Appia (30,000-copy first printing). Prepub Alert.

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September 15, 2023
When Julius Caesar traveled the now-famous Via Appia (or Appian Way), he improved the ancient roadway, thus earning the gratitude and support of towns beyond Rome. Today, parts of it are preserved as archaeological ruins. To unfurl the story of the empire-making roadway, John Keahey (Hidden Tuscany, 2014) takes up the challenge of traversing it, and then journeys much farther. He roams the boot of Italy, sails the Adriatic Sea, and crosses the Balkan peninsula. There he takes up the Via Egnatia to its terminus at the Eastern Roman Empire's capital, Constantinople, now Istanbul. Referenced by the poet Horace and vital to imperial Roman history, the Via Egnatia was the road the apostle Paul traveled to reach nascent Christian churches in ancient cities such as Philippi. As Keahey relates, parts of these ancient roads are now virtually abandoned or replaced by modern motorways, and he has to turn to knowledgeable locals to ferret out the original paths. Readers following Keahey's detailed history and geography may want to consult internet maps to supplement the book's outline ones.

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October 1, 2023
Traveling with the Caesars, Cicero, and Horace along Roman byways. At the apex of its power, the Roman Empire had 50,000 miles of paved roads. Constructed chiefly for military purposes, some 372 roads connected the empire's 113 provinces, from Britain to Mesopotamia and from the Danube River to Spain and North Africa. Nearly 30 roads left Rome itself. Keahey, the author of Seeking Sicily and Venice Against the Sea, begins much earlier, with the extraordinary achievement of the Roman Republic in building three ancient routes: the Via Appia, Via Egnatia, and Via Traiana. The author devotes most of the book to the first and most famous route--the Appian Way--and to those who traveled it in war or for diplomatic missions. To revisit the political, geological, and architectural history of each, Keahey's journey stuck as close as possible to the original routes, coursing through some of most arresting landscapes, ruins, villages, and towns of modern Italy, Greece, and Turkey. The author, who has written widely about Italy, reveals engineering marvels built largely by Roman soldiers, all the more impressive because so much of the pavement created from varied local materials still survives. Instrumental in the success of both journey and book were the numerous informal guides who assisted Keahey along the way, helping him separate fact from folklore and locate the most intriguing places. His own knowledge of the interplay between the great figures of the Republic and the Empire, of ancient mythology and earlier Italian cultures, is just as vital. Readers less enamored of the subject will be slowed by the sheer weight of journalistic detail and occasional repetition, but for others, it's an admirable travelogue reflecting Keahey's passions and an ideal step-by-step guide to anyone wanting to duplicate his excursions. The ancient routes of Rome come alive in this appealing new history.

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Starred review from October 30, 2023
This delightful travelogue from historian Keahey (Seeking Sicily) chronicles his three-month journey to walk the very stones Julius Caesar did some 2,000 years ago. While traversing the routes of the Via Appia and the Via Traiana in Italy and the Via Egnatia across the Balkans, Keahey ruminates on the integral role played in Roman and European history by these roads, sections of which underlie modern highways today, and traces the paths of famous figures who traveled them, including the poet Horace and the apostles Peter and Paul. Throughout, Keahey highlights the impact these roads had on Caesar’s political career. In 66 BCE, a young Caesar became curator of the Via Appia, which stretched from Rome to Brindisi in southern Italy. Spending his own fortune on improvements and repairs, Caesar gained favor with villages along the route, paving the way for his first electoral victory. He later achieved acclaim leading armies along the route to fight Rome’s civil wars. As Keahey seeks out the remaining stretches of the original roadways, he charmingly recounts being assisted by archeologists, historians, and knowledgeable locals; on one memorable occasion, he’s driven through the mud of a farmer’s field to be shown a yet unmapped portion of the Via Appia. This winsome and deeply researched account will spellbind readers.