Following Caesar: From Rome to Constantinople, the Pathways That Planted the Seeds of Empire

John Keahey

Dec 2023 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Tom Perkins

About this audiobook

In 66 BC, young, ambitious Julius Caesar, seeking recognition and authority, became the curator of the Via Appia. He borrowed significant sums to restore the ancient highway. It was a way to curry favor from Roman citizens in villages along the route, built from Rome to Brindisi between 312-191 BC. After achieving greatness in Rome and the far reaches of Gaul, he led armies along this road to battle enemies in Roman civil wars. And then, across the Adriatic Sea, he joined Via Appia's sister road, the Via Egnatia that began in today's Albania. Other armies followed these two roads that eventually connected Rome to Byzantium, today's Istanbul. In the early second century AD, the emperor Trajan charted a new coastal route between Benevento and Brindisi, later called the Via Traiana. Today, short stretches of the original three roads can be seen in the ruins of ancient Roman cities, now preserved as archaeological wonders, and through the countryside near, and sometimes under, modern highways. Following those routes is the purpose of treading along the path that Caesar and so many others took over the early centuries. Modern eyes, seeing through the mists of more than two thousand years of history, lead the traveler along these three roads coursing through six countries between Rome and Istanbul.

About the author

John Keahey is a retired newspaper reporter/news editor, and "writer who travels." He first visited Sicily in 1986 and, enchanted, keeps returning in between writing other travel narratives. His books range from southern Italy to Venice to western Tuscany. He is married to Connie Disney, a freelance book designer.

An award-winning audio engineer for over forty years, Tom Perkins has expanded his skills to narrating and has more than sixty titles to his credit. He learned by working with the world's best voice talent during his career, and he continues to engineer a variety of projects.