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 by the
Sabis mansio and the current
Cervia saltworks. North of Ravenna it continued towards the lagoon of
Comacchio, flanking the Augusta canal commissioned by the emperor
Augustus to connect Ravenna with the southern branch of the River
Po, passing by the
mansiones of
Butrium and
Augusta. The next
mansio was
Sacis ad Padum, near
Spina, which was named after the
Sagis branch of the Po. The road then crossed the
Neronia canal and the
Flavia canal and had the
Neronia and
Corniculani mansiones. It then reached the
Hadriani mansio. Here the route split into two. The older one went to
Atria. The other one went through the lagoon belt of the southern Veneto and reached Altinum. Slightly further north the road reached the now extinct Po Spinetico branch of the River Po, just before ancient
Spina, just to the north of Comacchio. It then followed another extinct branch of the river, the
Sagis, and reached the
Sacis Ad Padum mansio, where a canal which was probably commissioned by the emperor Nero started. The road went through the
Corniculani and
Hadriani mansiones (perhaps in Codigoro and San Basiglio in the municipality of
Ariano nel Polesine respectively). It then reached the
Septem Maria (Seven Seas), which is indicated in the Antonine itinerary and was probably between Donada and Contarina in the municipality of Porto di Viro, close to Adria. The
fossa Clodia canal started here, at the River Tartaro, and reached today's
Chioggia in the
Lagoon of Venice. The road then turned right, further inland, to reach
Atria. It is possible that in late antiquity, after Hadriani the coastal road followed a different course from that of the Popilia, which turned towards Atria but was not indicated in the Tabula Peutingeriana. The road probably decayed precociously, which explains the loss of the road name and the deterioration of the road system. == See also ==