The Via Egnatia () was a road constructed by the Romans in the 2nd century BC. It crossed the Roman provinces of Illyricum, Macedonia, and Thracia, running through territory that is now part of modern Albania, Greece, North Macedonia and European Turkey as a continuation of the Via Appia.
Starting at Dyrrachium (now Durrës) on the Adriatic Sea, the road followed a difficult route along the river Genusus (Shkumbin), over the Candaviae (Jablanica) mountains and thence to the highlands around Lake Ohrid. It then turned by parts south, following several high mountain passes to reach the northern coastline of the Aegean Sea at Thessalonica. From there it ran through Thrace to the city of Byzantium (later Constantinople, now Istanbul).Richard J. A. Talbert, Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman world: Map-by-Map Directory, p. 749. Princeton University Press, 2000. . It covered a total distance of about 1,120 km (696 miles/746 Roman miles). Like other major Roman roads, it was about six metres (19.6 ft) wide, paved with large polygonal stone slabs or covered with a hard layer of sand.Elena Koytcheva, "Logistical problems for the movement of the early crusaders through the Balkans: transport and road systems", p. 54 in Proceedings of the 21st International Congress of Byzantine Studies, ed. Elizabeth Jeffreys. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd, 2006. .
Construction and usage The main literary sources for the construction of the road are Strabo's Geographica and a number of milestones found along the route's length, marking the road for a length of 860 kilometres as far as the border between Macedonia and Thrace. Bilingual inscriptions on the milestones record that Gnaeus Egnatius, proconsul of Macedonia, ordered its construction,Inscription though the exact date is uncertain; the road presumably took its name from its builder.G. H. R. Horsley, New Documents Illustrating Early Christianity, Vol. 1, p. 81. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1982. It may have succeeded an earlier military road from Illyria to Byzantium, as described by Polybius and Cicero, which the Romans apparently built over and/or improved.Ben Witherington III, 1 and 2 Thesssalonians: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary, fn. 11 p. 3. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2006. .
The Via Egnatia was constructed in order to link a chain of Roman colonies stretching from the Adriatic Sea to the Bosphorus. The termini of the Via Egnatia and the Via Appia, leading from Rome itself, were almost directly opposite each other on the east and west shores of the Adriatic Sea. The route, thus gave the colonies of the southern Balkans a direct connection to Rome. It was also a vital link to Roman territories further to the east; until a more northerly route across Illyria was opened under Augustus it was Rome's main link with her empire in the eastern Mediterranean. It was repaired and expanded several times but experienced lengthy periods of neglect due to Rome's civil wars.
The road was used by the Apostle Paul on his second missionary journey as he traveled from Philippi to Thessalonica (Acts 16–17). It also played a vital role in several key moments in Roman history: the armies of Julius Caesar and Pompey marched along the Via Egnatia during Caesar's civil war, and during the Liberators' civil war Mark Antony and Octavian pursued Cassius and Brutus along the Via Egnatia to their fateful meeting at the Battle of Philippi. Surviving milestones record that the emperor Trajan undertook extensive repairs of the road prior to his campaign of 113 against the Parthians. However, by the 5th century AD the road had largely fallen into disuse as a result of violent instability in the region. A 5th-century historian noted that the western sections of the Via Egnatia were in such a poor state that travellers could barely pass along it.
In later years, the Via Egnatia was revived as a key road of the Eastern Roman Empire; Procopius records repairs made by Eastern Roman emperor Justinian I during the 6th century, though even then the dilapidated road was said to be virtually unusable during wet weather. Almost all Byzantine overland trade with western Europe traveled along the Via Egnatia. During the Crusades, armies traveling to the east by land followed the road to Constantinople before crossing into Asia Minor. In the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade, control of the road was vital for the survival of the Latin Empire as well as the Byzantine successor states the Empire of Nicaea and the Despotate of Epirus.
Post-Roman usage During the first European conquests of Ottoman Turks sol kol (lit. left arm) was following the Via Egnatia.Kılıç, Ayşegül; Bir Osmanlı Akın Beyi Gazi Evrenos Bey İthaki Yay. İstanbul 2014, p. 16. (in Turkish)
Today there is a modern highway in Greece that is called Egnatia Odos. It runs in parallel to the Via Egnatia between Thessaloniki and the Turkish border on the Evros river, while its western, Thessaloniki-Igoumenitsa stretch runs far south of the Via Egnatia. Its name means "Via Egnatia" in Greek, alluding to its ancient counterpart.See the website of Egnatia Odos S.A. , the company responsible for building the road.
The Via Egnatia is known as ("The Big Road") by the Aromanians in their native Aromanian language.Româna în cadrul romanității orientale: câteva probleme de istorie a limbii române. p. 36.
Key towns along the Via Egnatia Listed from west to east:
Ancient nameModern nameModern countryDyrrachiumDurrësAlbaniaClaudianaPeqinAlbaniaApolloniaBy the village of Pojani (7 km of Fier)AlbaniaMansio ScampaElbasanAlbaniaLychnidosOhridNorth MacedoniaDamastion ResenNorth MacedoniaHeracleaBitolaNorth MacedoniaFlorinaFlorinaGreeceEdessaEdessaGreecePellaPellaGreeceThessalonikeThessalonikiGreecePydnaPossibly Kitros, 6 km of modern PydnaGreeceAmphipolisAmfipoliGreecePhilippi14 km of KavalaGreeceNeapolisKavalaGreeceAnastasiopolis-PeritheorionGreeceTraianoupolisTraianoupoliGreeceKypselaİpsalaTurkeyAenusEnezTurkeyAproi (Apros, Apris, Aprī)Village of KermeyanTurkeyAdrianopleEdirne (not on the main Via Egnatia)TurkeyPerinthus, later HeracleaVillage of MarmaraereğlisiTurkeyCaenophruriumSinekli in Silivri districtTurkeySelymbriaSilivriTurkeyMelantiasTurkeyRhegionKüçükçekmece, 15 km of IstanbulTurkeyHebdomonBakırköy, seven miles west of the MilionTurkeyByzantium, later ConstantinopleIstanbulTurkey
References
Further reading 1994. "94/692/EC: Commission Decision of 17 May 1994 Concerning the Grant of Assistance from the Cohesion Financial Instrument to the Stage of Project Concerning the Construction of Via Egnatia - Igoumenitsa-Pedini Section - Subsection Vrosina (Psilorachi)-Pedini in Greece". Official Journal of the European Communities. Legislation. 37, no. 277: 66. Amore, M G, L Bejko, Y Cerova, and I Gjipali. 2005. "Archaeological Reports and Notes - Via Egnatia (Albania) Project: Results of Fieldwork 2002". Journal of Roman Archaeology. 18: 336. Attekum, Marietta van, and Holger de Bruin. Via Egnatia on Foot: A Journey into History. Driebergen: Via Egnatia Foundation, 2014. Collart, Paul. 1935. "Une réfection de la « Via Egnatia » sous Trajan". Bulletin De Correspondence Hellénique. 59, no. 1: 395–415. . Michele Fasolo: La via Egnatia I. Da Apollonia e Dyrrachium ad Herakleia Lynkestidos, Istituto Grafico Editoriale Romano, 2nd ed., Roma 2005. (See also http://www.viaegnatia.net ) Gunaropulu, Lukrētia, and Miltiadēs B. Chatzopulos. Les milliaires de la voie égnatienne entre Héraclée des Lyncestes et Thessalonique. 1985. Modern Greek. Series: Meletēmata / Kentron Hellēnikēs kai Rōmaïkēs Archaiotētos, 1. OCLC: 159882150. Heywood, Colin, and Elizabeth Zachariadou. The Via Egnatia in the Ottoman Period: The Menzilhānes of the Ṣol Ḳol in the Late 17th/Early 18th Century. Rethymnon: Crete University Press, 1996. Kazazaki, Zoe. Monasteries of the Via Egnatia. [Heraklion Crete (Greece)]: [Greek Ministry of Culture], 1999. (v.1); (v.1). Kollaros, G. A., E. G. Varagouli-Xidaki, A. G. Athanasopoulou-Kollarou, and G. S. Xidakis. 1988. "Via Egnatia: A Modern Engineering Approach to an Ancient Highway". The Engineering Geology of Ancient Works, Monuments and Historical Sites, Rotterdam, 1988. 3: 1705–1713. Lolos, Yannis. 2007. "Via Egnatia after Egnatius: Imperial Policy and Inter-regional Contacts". Mediterranean Historical Review. 22, no. 2: 273–293. . Abstract: The Via Egnatia, which linked Dyrrachium to Kypsela and ultimately to Byzantium/Constantinople, was the first Roman highway to be built east of the Adriatic. The studies published so far on this important road are devoted almost exclusively to its military importance, particularly during the Roman Republic. This author's goal instead was to assess the importance of the Egnatia at a political, social, and cultural level, by examining written sources (literary and epigraphical) and material remains. The article looks into the policy of Roman emperors regarding the Egnatia, and the role of the Via as a factor of commercial, social, and cultural interaction between the Italian peninsula and the Greek world, as well as among the cities and regions that it crossed. It also shows the contribution of the Egnatia to the spectacular development of certain cities and the parallel weakening of others, together with its impact upon the rural landscape. O'Sullivan, Firmin. The Egnatian Way. Newton Abbot: David and Charles, 1972. 264 pages. Romiopoulou, Catherine. 1974. "Un nouveau milliaire de la Via Egnatia". Bulletin De Correspondence Hellénique. 98, no. 2: 813–816. Samsaris, Dim. Δ. Κ. Σαμσάρης, Pennana, Ένας ρωμαϊκός σταθμός (mutatio) της Εγνατίας οδού, Dodona 15 (1986), 1, σ. 69–84. Sande, Siri. 2004. "The Petropigi Fortress: A Late Byzantine and Early Ottoman "Statio" on the Via Egnatia". Interaction and Isolation in Late Byzantine Culture / Ed. by Jan Olof Rosenqvist. 89–99. . Tafel, Gottlieb Lukas Friedrich. De via Romanorum militari Egnatia qua Illyricum Macedonia et Thracia iungebantur: diss. geographica. 1837.