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Appius Claudius Caecus ("the blind"; c. 340 BC – 273 BC) was a Roman politician from a wealthy patrician family. He was the son of Gaius Claudius Crassus. ==Life== Appius Claudius Crassus was a censor in 312 BC, although he had not previously been consul.〔Livy, ix.29.〕 He sought support from the lower classes, allowing sons of freedmen to serve in the Senate, and extending voting privileges to men in the rural tribes who did not own land. During the Second Samnite War, he advocated the founding of Roman colonies (''colonia'') throughout Latium and Campania to serve as fortifications against the Samnites and Etruscans. During his term as censor, he built the Appian Way ((ラテン語:Via Appia)), an important and famous road between Rome and Capua, as well as the first aqueduct in Rome, the Aqua Appia. Appius is best known for these two undertakings which he started in his lifetime. He also published for the first time a list of legal procedures and the legal calendar, knowledge of which, until that time, had been reserved for the ''pontifices'', the priests. He was also concerned with literature and rhetoric, and instituted reforms in Latin orthography. He later served as consul twice, in 307 BC and 296 BC, and in 292 BC and 285 BC he was appointed Dictator. According to Livy, he had gone blind because of a curse. In 279,〔Boak, Arthur E. R. & Sinnigen, William G. ''History of Rome to A.D. 565''. 5th Edition. The Macmillan Company, 1965. Print. pg. 95〕 he gave a famous speech against Cineas, an envoy of Pyrrhus of Epirus, declaring that Rome would never surrender. This is the earliest known manuscript of a political speech in Latin, and is the source of the saying "every man is the architect of his own fortune" (Latin: ''quisque faber suae fortunae'').〔(James Grout: ''Appius Claudius Caecus and the Letter Z'', part of the Encyclopædia Romana )〕 Appius wrote a book called ''Sententiae'', based upon a verse of Greek model. It was "the first Roman book of literary character".〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Appius Claudius Caecus」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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