According to the most widely accepted hypothesis, the Roman columns were built at the behest of Trajan, the emperor who carried out the re-routing of the pre-existing Via Appia, which led to the birth of the Via Traiana, now the Via Francigena of the South.
They were – and still are – a symbol of Rome's greatness as a trading power, in the place where two of the most important engineering works in Roman history converged, opposite the port of Brindisi, one of the most important in ancient Italy, from which the trade routes to the East originated.