Appius Claudius Caecus

Appius Claudius Caecus was a statesman and writer of the Roman Republic active from about 312 to 279 BC, best known for two building projects, the Appian Way, the first major Roman road, and the Aqua Appia, the first aqueduct built at Rome. He is the first Roman public figure whose life can be traced with some historical certainty, and he is also credited with authoring an early juristic treatise on legal procedure, a collection of moral essays, and several poems. As censor from 312 BC, an office he held for five years, he introduced reforms that increased the voting power of the poor and landless and admitted lower class citizens to the Senate, and he was the first censor to draw up a formal written list of senators. He later served as consul in 296 BC and praetor in 295 BC, leading campaigns against the Etruscans and Samnites, and in old age, after going blind, he delivered a speech to the Senate that helped defeat a proposed peace with the Epirote king Pyrrhus.