Brindisi, Italy: The Legends of This Ancient City That I Now Call Home

There’s a great scene in the Kirk Douglas action-adventure film “Spartacus” (Universal ,1960), where Kirk Douglas enthusiastically exclaims to sidekick Tony Curtis that they were “âÂ?¦off to the Roman city of Brundisium!” And there – where the Appian Way meets the port – pre-arranged ships would lie in waiting to take Spartacus and his great army of freed slaves off to Greece and a life of tanning beds and plates of slovaki.

Well, history (and Hollywood) have taught us that Spartacus got double-crossed in Brundisium: there were no ships waiting, and ultimately the end of the Appian Way was paved not with gold, but with crucified bodies after the Roman soldiers gave the slaves such a terrific ass-whipping. Spartacus was killed in and Tony Curtis went on the star in such memorable films as “The Great Race”.

Be that as it may – I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for the city of Brundisium, which time has altered the spelling of, en route to its present day calling ofâÂ?¦Brindisi! None other than my wife’s home town and where I currently live and write!

But that’s not important right now.

What does count is that Brindisi is seeped in Roman history. In fact, possibly the city’s most famous claim to fame is that the Port of Brindisi marks the end of the famous Appian Way. The same Appian Way where Spartacus got double-crossed, and which started in Rome and criss-crossed it’s way throughout Southern Italy ending in the same city where I met my wife so many years ago.

Fortunately a portion of the Appian Way still exists. Hundreds of men and women travel over it everyday and probably don’t even realize its importance. A roughly one-and-a- half-mile stretch of the original “Via Appia” has long since been paved over with asphalt, but is still a heavily traveled thoroughfare in the city. It now re-emerges in downtown Brindisi: enhanced with great steps and the remains of two imposing Roman Columns that actually marked the end of this historic trading route way back when.

This allows me to segue to the second half of this story – the Roman columns of Brindisi Another great urban legend in this small port city on the Adriatic coast. Tourists will notice that there is only one full column and only about a quarter of the other sitting at the top of the steps that mark the end of the Appian Way. What happened? Legend has it that back in Roman times, the nearby city of Lecce – about 25 kilometers to the South – took the column to erect in their piazza. Wouldn’t it have been cheaper just to commission a stone-mason to chisel a new one? The legend continues that the citizens of Brindisi went to Lecce to get their column back, but only made off with the base, which is exactly what you’ll see standing next to the other Roman column. Fact? Fiction? Where’s Robert Stack when you need him the most?

In the meantime, the cities of Brindisi and Lecce enjoy a more or less friendly rivalry to this day. All thanks to the incident with that Roman column.

Time, pollution and the elements really started taking their toll on the Brindisi column over the years. Finally back in 1990 the columns were dismantled and cleaned. Sounds simple enough, but this process took nearly five years to complete, due more to a lack of sufficient funds than anything else. Finally in early 1995 the columns were rebuilt, and ever since then Brindisi has been able to lay claim to this most famous of landmarks.

Like most people in the city, my family and I often go downtown for a “passaggiata” (walk) and seeing as there’s a terrific ice cream parlor at the base of the steps (Bar Betty – – check it out!) I often allow my imagination to wander and think of Spartacus and his army and getting as far as they could get without falling into the port of Brindisi. The locals say on a clear day you can see the shores of Corfu, but try as I might I can never make it out. The landscape was a lot different back then, but visitors can get a good idea of what Roman-era Brindisi was like if they visit the nearby archeological site of Ignazia (which alos showcases a portion of the Appian Way).

Apparently at one time in downtown Brindisi, there was a plaque designating the end of the Appian Way and it’s important to Spartacus.

There is a most eloquent and informative article about Spartacus and “The Great Slave War” that is written by Graham Stevenson and can be found at: http://graham.thewebtailor.co.uk/archives/000043.html

This all-encompassing article sheds a lot of new light on one of Rome’s most notable battles and also one it’s most embarrassing. There are also several sites that can inform readers about Brindisi and its strategic importance throughout history. They all make for great reading.

Brindisi, Spartacus and the end of the Appian Way. Still remembered and/or standing in one way or another.

Kirk Douglas would be proud.