Road station
Barium
Bari
Listen to the story
Barium, now Bari, was a harbour town of the Peucetians, said by the Roman writer Pliny to have been founded by Illyrians from across the sea, and it flourished long before Rome, as its rich cemetery shows. The poet Horace, on his journey to Brundisium, passed the walls of Bari rich in fish. Here the Via Traiana met the coast road, and a milestone found here counts one hundred and twenty-eight Roman miles from Benevento, about one hundred and ninety kilometres.