Via Egnatia

Overview

The Via Egnatia (Latin for "Egnatian Way") was a military and commercial road that Rome built across the Balkan Peninsula from west to east. It ran from the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea into Macedonia and Thrace. As a major highway, it linked large cities to one another. The New Testament does not mention the road by name. However, the cities through which Paul passed on his second missionary journey lay along it, so the road is frequently discussed in studies of biblical geography and early Christian missions.

Background

Rome overthrew the Kingdom of Macedonia in 168 BC, and around 146 BC it organized the region as a province, a territory governed directly by a Roman governor. Rome needed a route for moving troops and supplies quickly from Italy across the Adriatic to the East. The road took its name from Gnaeus Egnatius, a proconsul of Macedonia. This was confirmed by the discovery near Thessaloniki of a milestone inscribed with his name in Latin and Greek.

History

• Late second century BC: Construction began. The exact year is uncertain, but it is generally dated shortly after the region became a province. The western starting points were Dyrrachium (modern Durrës, Albania) and Apollonia on the Adriatic coast. The road crossed mountainous terrain and passed through the Macedonian plain to Thessalonica, Amphipolis, Philippi, and Neapolis (modern Kavala, Greece). It initially extended as far as the vicinity of the Hebrus River in Thrace and was later continued to Byzantium (modern Istanbul). Its total length is reported to have been about 1,100 km (roughly 680 miles).
• First century BC: The road became a major theater of the Roman civil wars. In 42 BC the Battle of Philippi, in which Antony and Octavian defeated Brutus and Cassius, was fought near Philippi beside the road. Afterward Roman veterans settled in Philippi, and Acts 16:12 describes the city as "a colony."
• First century AD: Paul and his companions sailed from Troas by way of Samothracia, landed at Neapolis, and went on to Philippi (Acts 16:11–12). The cities named in the subsequent account—"Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica" (Acts 17:1)—all lie along this road. Scholars therefore generally hold that the party traveled the Via Egnatia. The Apollonia mentioned here is not the port of the same name at the road's western end but a different city within Macedonia.

Results and Influence

The road became a corridor linking Rome with the East, traveled by soldiers, officials, merchants, and other travelers. The churches Paul founded at Philippi and Thessalonica were located in cities on the road, and they are therefore cited as representative examples of how the gospel spread along the Roman road network. Some interpreters connect the words of 1 Thessalonians 1:8, "For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia," with this transportation route. Even after the division of the Roman Empire into East and West, the road remained a major artery of the Balkan Peninsula through the Byzantine period and beyond. The modern highway across northern Greece is likewise named after it: the Egnatia Odos.

Assessment

Historians regard the Via Egnatia as a prime example of the infrastructure Rome used to rule and unify the East. In church history and biblical studies, it is treated as an important clue for reconstructing the actual routes of Paul's missionary journeys. Acts, however, does not name the road. The view that Paul followed it is therefore an inference based on the locations of the cities recorded, and the precise route he took on each segment cannot be determined with certainty. Some also take the phrase "unto Illyricum" in Romans 15:19 to mean that Paul traveled west along this road, but this too remains conjecture.