THE VIA EGNATIA: ROME'S TRAVERSE OF A MULTI-CULTURAL MARCHLAND

During the fourth century B.C., the Athenian empire encircled the Aegean Sea, Epirus tended to be independent, and Thessaly allied to Athens. Northward limits of Athenian control on the mainland approximately the latitude of Mount Olympus, and beyond the Haliacmon was Illyria and Macedonia. One of Alexander's first tasks was to control Balkan waist from Apollonia to the Hebrus, enforcing subservience of peoples such as the Paconians, Agrianis and Thracians and using those marchlands to exclude inroads from Illyria and Tribali along the lower Danube. As a result of the first Punic War (238 B.C.), Rome acquired a foothold across the Otranto in the Apollonia area closing the Macedonian door to the Adriatic.! Having established this beachhead, lines of communication were a necessary pre-requisite to firm control of the lands south of the Dan9 ube and incorporation into the East Roman Empire.