TRES TABERNÆ was a _mutatio_, or halting-place, 11 miles from the
Porta Capena on the Via Appia, at the place now called Frattocchie. It
is 10 miles from the Porta S. Sebastiano and 11 from the Porta S.
Giovanni on the Via Appia Nova, or 9 English miles 326 yards from the
Porta Appia. Here the four roads from Rome, Tusculum, Alba Longa, and
Antium met and continued southwards as one road. It is still a
halting-place, and taverns necessarily grace it. Its exact location is
explicitly pointed out by Cicero. He says to Atticus (ii. 10), "I had
come out of the Antian way into the Appian way at the Tres Tabernæ, on
the Festival of Ceres. When my Curio, coming from Rome, met me, at the
same place came your servant with letters from you [from Tusculum].
Written at the 10th hour (4 p.m.), Apl. 12th," B.C. 58. Continuing his
journey to Formiæ, Cicero again writes to Atticus: "From Appii Forum,
at the 4th hour (10 p.m.). I wrote a little while before from the Tres
Tabernæ" (ii. 11). So it took him six hours to do the 32 miles between
Tres Tabernæ and Appii Forum. Cicero knew the spot well, for it was
the scene of the murder of Clodius. "Severus was detained a prisoner
at a state villa at the 13th mile on the Appian way, where he was
strangled, and then brought back to the 8th mile [from the Porta
Appia] and buried in the tomb of Gallienus" ("Excerpta Valesiana," iv.
10). "Severus was murdered near to the Tres Tabernæ of Rome by
Maximianus; and his body was placed in the sepulchre of Gallienus,
which is 9 miles from the city [Porta Capena] on the Appian way"
(Aurelius Victor, "Ep." xl. 3). Some have located Tres Tabernæ at
Sermoneta, 23 miles, others at Cisterna, 30 miles from Rome. In the
first case Cicero would have taken five hours to do the 20 miles, and
in the second case five hours to do 13 miles; besides, the Antian
joins the Appian way 11 miles from Rome. These writers were evidently
misled by the medieval forgery known as the Tabula Peutingeriana,
which is in the Vienna Library.
APPII FORUM was a town of the Volsci, 43 miles from Rome, where
travellers embarked or disembarked, passing the Pontine marshes by
means of the canal. Horace ("Sat." i. 5) describes it as "stuffed with
sailors and surly landlords." These places are interesting, being the
meeting-places of the Roman Christians with St. Paul. "And from Rome,
when the brethren heard of us, they came to meet us as far as Appii
Forum and Tres Tabernæ" (Acts xxviii. 15).
[Illustration: MAP OF THE ROMAN CAMPAGNA.]