News from Italy
The Magnificent Bridge Connecting Rome to Istanbul: Egnatia Road
Gabriele Martino- Every road that connects cultures has a traveller. They pass and go, leaving their traces on stony, dusty roads. The streets that collect the traces left by human beings and turn them into the dust of history await their new passengers. The interconnected paths continue to shine from the past to the future like a comet. The King’s Road, Hadrian’s Road, Silk Road and Amber Road are essential roads extending from the past to the present as cultural heritages. On the other hand, Egnatia Road is one of the most important roads connecting the two important capitals of the period, Rome and Istanbul, shining like a culture star from past to present.
The Via Egnatia was among the Romans’ first roads outside Italy. It was a branch of the magnificent road network that surrounded the empire’s borders that made Rome, Rome. It was built to connect Roman colonies stretching from the Adriatic Sea to the Bosphorus. Connecting with the Appian Way in the west and the Silk Road in the East, East Egnatia has been connecting east and west for over 2,000 years. The Romans first created an east-west route that cut the Balkan peninsula between the Otranto Canal and the Gulf of Thessaloniki, connecting the Ionian and Lower Adriatic to the northern Aegean, later connecting the two capitals of the empire, projecting Rome to theEastt, Eastanding it into Byzantium-Constantinople. This road maintained its importance alone until a new road was opened further north during the reign of Emperor Augustus.
Egnatia, the road of all times from the Romans, Byzantines and Ottomans to our age, was also used as the primary connection road in the Roman empire in the Eastern Mediterranean. Egnatia, which was constantly destroyed due to civil wars, was repaired in the 6th century during the reign of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I. They made all their trades with the West through this route. The road’s name also changed after the Balkans road under Ottoman rule. Since the Ottomans called the routes they followed when they set out on a campaign the right, middle and left arm, this road became the “eft Arm’’in Rumelia.
Egnatia, which takes its shine from the strategic and economic contribution it has made to the geography it covers and what it has witnessed, also played an essential role in several turning points in Roman history: During the great Roman Civil War in the late Roman Republic, the soldiers of Julius Caesar and Pompey along the Egnatia Road. Had advanced; Mark Antony and Octavian had followed Cassius and Brutus along the same path; Emperor Trajan made his 113th campaign against the Parthians using this road…
Egnatia has also been one of the strategic actors in the spread of Christianity. Paul the Apostle used this route in his second missionary journey between Philippi and Thessaloniki. The Crusades were made on this road until Constantinople.
Egnatia, which has been uniting the East and the West for nearly 2,000 years, became the most critical factor in the intense exchange of cultures, languages, ideas, and trade between Roman, Greek, Albanian, Slavic, Bulgarian, Jewish, Turkish, and many peoples. It has affected the cultures of the people in the regions it passes through, such as music, food, and art.
Via Egnatia played an important role especially during the Byzantine Empire, being one of the two ways to get to the Byzantine possessions, especially in the beautiful Sicily, think of the beautiful city of Syracuse which had an important role, being in the Ionian coast, the which allowed to be reached by ships. The Via Egnatia was the second way possible to arrive in present-day Southern Italy. The via Egnatia was the earthly road, while the second chance to cross the Mediterranean Sea to get from Constantinople to Syracuse.
The road construction, which started in 146 BC, took 26 years. The approximately 1,120-kilometer road is about six meters wide, “like the other main“roads of Rome”. During the Roman ” period, round milestones were erected in the streets, showing their direction and distance from the centre. The inscription on one of these stones exhibited in the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki states that Gnaeus Egnatius, the Roman Governor of Macedonia, organized the construction of this road. For this reason, the road’s name is thought to come from the Governor.
The Albanian route of the Egnatia Road, which connects Rome to Istanbul via Via Apria, starts from Durres (Dyrrachium), reaches Peklin (Claudia), then passes to the village of Pojani (Apollonia) and finally reaches Elbasan (Masio Scampa). Egnatia, passing through Albania and North Macedonia, first reaches Ohrid (Lychnidos) and then Monastery (Heraclea Lyncestis). Later, Egnatia, passing to the Greece stage, tours the cities of “Florina (Florina), “Odina (Edessa), Alakilise (Pella), Thessaloniki (Thessalonica), Amphipolis (Amphipolis) and Kavala (Neapolis). Finally, Egnatia, which passed to Turkey at the last stop, Ipsala (Kypsela), Enez (Aenus), Edirne (Adrianople), Kermeyan (Aproi), Çorlu (Caenophrurium), Marmara Ereğlisi (Perinthus), Silivri (Melantias), Küçükçekmece (Rhegion), Bakırköy (Hebdomon) reaches Istanbul (Byzantion) by passing through Istanbul (Çatalca).
Egnatia remains attractive today. Those who are interested in art, culture, and history from all over the world explore through road tourism to follow the traces of this rare cultural star, to be alone with their imagination, and to experience different excitements.
