Via Egnatia. The Importance of the Roman Road Via Egnatia for the Roman Penetration in Thrace

Authors:

Pages: 40-52

Abstract:

In the 2nd–1st centuries BC considerable changes took place in the historical development of the Balkan Peninsula due to Roman military and political expansion. In the sources of the period (narratives and epigraphic material) a consecution of campaigns and events have been recorded that ended at the turn of the 2nd c. with the establishment of the Roman provinces Macedonia, Achaea, and Illyricum. The completion of these processes was preceded by a huge political pressure that was also reflected by the change in the symbolic system used in the coin minting on the islands of Thassos, Maronea, Apollonia, in Dyrrhachium, the later established I and II Macedonian regions. In its essence this is the empirical material on the basis of which the success of the Roman policy of conquest and the final results reflecting the establishment of the Roman provincial structure on the Balkan Peninsula could be traced. An important role in the realization of these processes played the road Via Egnatia constructed in this period – initially as a military (via militaris) and later as a social (via publicae) communication link. In this paper the author consecutively studies military and political processes as well as the spread of coin finds that include emissions from the lower Danube typical of the period . On the basis of these data the thesis that Via Egnatia was a significant factor for the Roman penetration in Thrace is advanced.

Keywords:

Via Egnatia, Kandavia, Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Hebros, coins

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