The Via Popilia is the name of two different ancient Roman roads begun in the consulship of Publius Popilius Laenas. One was in southern Italy and the other was in north-eastern Italy. Road in southern Italy The road in southern Italy ran from the Via Appia at Capua to Rhegium on the Straits of Messina. An archaeological discovery of part of its itinerarium on an engraved on stone (The Polla Tablet) brought it more fully into the light of history. It ran a distance of through southern Campania and Calabria, through the interior of the country, not along the coast. There are the remains of at least one Roman bridge along the road, the Ponte sul Savuto. Road in north-eastern Italy The road in north-eastern Italy connected Ariminum (modern Rimini) to Atria (modern Adria). At Atria it joined the Via Annia which went to Patavium (modern Padua), Altinum and Aquileia. It was an extension of the Via Flaminia which connected Rome and Ariminum. Ariminum was also at the junction with the Via Aemilia which run through the plain of the River Po. This via Popilia was not mentioned in ancient sources. It was identified through a milestone found near Adria in 1844. It indicated the name of the man who had it built, Pulius Popilius, and that the origin of the road was 81 miles further south. This information, together with that provided by two Roman itineraries, the Antonine Itinerary and the Tabula Peutingeriana, has led to the identification of this road as having been built by the consul Publius Popilius Laenas, who was consul in 132 BCE and having had Ariminum as its starting point. The two itineraries indicated Ariminum as the starting point but did not mention Atria and have it ending in Altinum through different routes. The idea that the older course of the Via Popilia reached Atria finds possible support through the proposed reconstructions of the Via Annia which have it starting at Atria. This gives a picture of carefully planned and continuous route which follows the Italian regions on the upper Adriatic Sea. The two mentioned itineraries differ in their depiction of the course. The former presents a journey which was mainly through watercourses, rivers and lagoons connected to each other by a network of canals. The latter depicts a land route with staging posts (mansiones, plural of mansio). The Ariminum to Ravenna tract went