Appius Claudius Caecus ("the blind") was a Roman politician from a wealthy patrician family.

Appius was a censor in 312 BC and 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.

Appius is best known for two undertakings he began as censor: the Appian Way (Latin: Via Appia), the first major Roman road, running between Rome and Beneventum to the south; and the first aqueduct in Rome, the Aqua Appia.

He also supported Gnaeus Flavius, who 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, a college of priests.

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, he gave a famous speech against Cineas, an envoy of Pyrrhus of Epirus, declaring that Rome would never surrender. This is the earliest known 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).

Appius wrote a book called Sententiae, based upon a verse of Greek model. It was "the first Roman book of literary character". He was also concerned with literature and rhetoric, and instituted reforms in Latin orthography, allegedly ending the use of the letter Z.

Appius Claudius Caecus is used in Cicero's Pro Caelio as a stern and disapproving ancestor to Clodia. Cicero assumes the voice of Caecus in a scathing prosopopoeia, where Caecus is incensed at Clodia for associating with Caelius, a member of the middle equestrian class instead of the upper patrician class. Caecus's achievements, such as the building of the Appian Way and the Aqua Appia, are mentioned as being defiled by Clodia's actions.

Children:
F Claudia Major av CLAUDII -318--260
M Crassus Rufus av CLAUDII -317--265
F Claudia Minor av CLAUDII -316--250
F Claudia Tertia av CLAUDII -314--252
M Gaius Centho av CLAUDII -313--235
F Claudia Quartia av CLAUDII -312--252
M Tiberius Nero av CLAUDII -311--248
F Claudia Quintia av CLAUDII -310--255

Barn:
Tiberius Nero av Claudii, född -311, död -248
Gaius Centho av Claudii, född -313, död -235