Subject
In a passage of his Bibliotheca historica, Diodorus Siculus mentions the censor Appius Claudius, responsible for the construction of both the aqueduct and the road still bearing his name. Although he had used the entire public revenues for these projects, he left an “immortal memory” of himself by virtue of his contribution to the “common good”.
Diodorus Siculus Book 20.36.1-2: “1. In that same year in Rome they appointed censors and one of them, Appius Claudius, who had L. Plautius as a colleague, changed many laws of his ancestors, favouring the people and taking no account of the senate. First he conducted the aqueduct called the Appia to Rome over a distance of eighty stadia and for this work he drew much money from public resources, without any decree from the senate; 2. then he paved with solid stone the greater part of the road that after him takes the name Appia, from Rome to Capua, for a distance of more than a thousand stadia, breaking down the heights and levelling the ravines and depressions in the terrain with suitable works, and although he spent all the public finances, he left an immortal memory of himself, having aspired to the common good…” (translated from the Italian edition by A. S. Agostinetti, after the original Greek).
Placement
Universiteit Gent Universiteitsbibliotheek
Credits
Google Books, Universiteit Gent Universiteitsbibliotheek
References
Diodori Siculi Bibliotheca Historica. Ex recognitione Immanuelis Bekkeri. Tom. III, Lipsiae 1853.
Diodoro Siculo. Biblioteca storica. Libri XVIII-XX, a cura di Anna Simonetti Agostinetti, Milano 1988.
