Aptus bible5/16/2023 ![]() ![]() The latter is the plural of πους ( pous), foot, and the first looks like a plural of ιον ( ion), violet, or ιος ( ios), arrow (the noun ιαφετης, iaphetes, means archer). Where that name came from, and what it may have meant, is also not clear, but to a creative Greek speaker, it would have resembled a compound of the elements ια ( ia) and ποδες ( podes). Yet the origin of the Iapygians was in the Balkans, quite possibly with an Illyrian tribe called the Iapydes: Ιαποδες ( Iapodes). The name Appulia or Apulia, in turn, comes from the name Iapygia ( Ιαπυγια, Iapugia), the name the Mycenaean Greeks had given the area, possibly after a name of a local tribe there: the Iapygians, who used the Greek alphabet and were strongly influenced by Greek culture. The name Appius, contrarily, may have rung like Appulia, or Apulia, the name of the province that comprised the calf of the Italian boot. The name Attius may have reminded of Atticus, the prominent region of Greece whose capital was Athens. It may even be that Appius doesn't really translate or paraphrase Attius, but rather emphasizes Appius as born-again Roman who disavowed his "barbaric" origin. What the Sabine name Attius may have meant is no longer clear, nor why its Latin version would be Appius. He fittingly Latinized his original Sabine name Attius Clausus. Appius was also quite the writer, and his later adopted cognomen Caecus (which means blind his original cognomen was Crassus, stout) may in some circles also have worked as a playful nod to Homer (to whom Luke playfully refers in Luke 4:18).Īppius Claudius Caecus was also a member of the mighty Claudii family (hence the later Julio-Claudian imperial dynasty), the first of whom was also called Appius Claudius: a fifth century BC Sabine warrior who defected to Rome and became a leading figure in the formation of the Roman Republic. Appius Claudius Caecus was not only a great builder and reformer, he was also notoriously generous to the poor and underprivileged, and thus rubbed the rich and traditional in every way but right. The Appian Way and thus the Appian Market were named after Appius Claudius Caecus, the statesman who build the road. The connection between these two names may even go deeper than that, as we will discuss below. It was formally named after its builder, but this name may also have stuck because it resembled the name Appulia, of the area in the south of Italy to where the road led. The Appian Way was known as the proverbial Road to Rome. Six thousand survivors were crucified along the Appian Way, which turned the 200 km between Rome and Capua into a hell-bound gorge of death and horror. Captained by Spartacus, and after years of heavy combat, the slaves were defeated by the legions of Marcus Licinius Crassus. In the 70s BC, seventy escaped gladiators amassed a popular army of 120,000 men, women and children, who tore through Italia trying to escape to freedom. Jesus was called the First Born of Creation ( Romans 8:29, Colossians 1:15-18, Hebrews 1:6, Revelation 1:5), which makes him the Appian Way of the Kingdom of God.Ĭrucifixion was referred to as supplicium servile, the humbling of slaves. Roads, as was soon discovered, keep empires together and when Jesus called himself the Way, he not only spoke of merely getting from A to B, but also about the sort of economy of brotherly love and conversation that keeps the Kingdom of God together ( Matthew 6:33, Ephesians 4:3-6). ![]() Construction began in 312 BC, during the Samnite wars, which is significant because Pontius Pilate hailed from a Samnite family and may have harbored long-lasting resentment because of this, which in turn may have softened him toward Jesus (see our article on the name Pilate for more on this). The Appian Way ran from Rome to the heel of the boot of Italy and was the original backbone of the Roman Republic, used to deploy military troops anywhere in its early territory. ![]() The name Appius occurs only once in the Bible, namely in Acts 28:15, as part of the more complete Appii Forum, which is Latin for the Market Of Appius (Appii is the genitive form of Appius).Īppii Forum (65km south of Rome) and Three Taverns (50 km south of Rome) were the first stations out of Rome (or the last ones in), on the famous Via Appia, or Appian Way, which was the very first road of Rome. ![]()
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