Via Militaris

The northern Balkans, including the Via Militaris, in Late Antiquity.

Via Militaris or Via Diagonalis was an ancient Roman road, starting from Singidunum (today the Serbian capital Belgrade), passing by Danube coast to Viminacium (mod. Požarevac), through Naissus (mod. Niš), Serdica (mod. Sofia), Philippopolis (mod. Plovdiv), Adrianopolis (mod. Edirne in Turkish Thrace), and reaching Constantinople (mod. Istanbul). This road was connected with Via Egnatia by other roads - the road along river Axios (or Vardar), the Serdica-Thessalonica road along river Strymon (or Struma), and the road Philippopolis-Philippi.

It was built in the 1st century AD. The length from Singidunum to Constantinople was 924 kilometres.¹

In May 2010, while work was done on the Corridor 10 in Serbia, well-preserved remains of the road were excavated in Dimitrovgrad, Serbia. The eight-meter wide road was constructed from large blocks of stone and had two lanes.²

Key towns along the Via Militaris

Ancient name	Modern name	Modern country
Singidunum	Belgrade	Serbia
Gratiana	Dobra	Serbia
Viminacium	Kostolac (Požarevac)	Serbia
Naissus	Niš	Serbia
Remesiana	Bela Palanka	Serbia
Serdica	Sofia	Bulgaria
Philippolis	Plovdiv	Bulgaria
Adrianople	Edirne	Turkey
Arcadiopolis	Lüleburgaz	Turkey
Byzantium (Constantinople)	Istanbul	Turkey

References

• Stephen Mitchell: The administration of Roman Asia from 133 BE to AD 250 in Lokale Autonomie und römische Ordnungsmacht in den kaiserzeitlichen Provinzen vom 1. Bis 3. Jahrhundert (Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag 1999, ISBN 3486563858, S. 18) (restricted online version (Google Books))
• Fred Singleton, Frederick Bernard Singleton: A Short History of the Yugoslav Peoples. Cambridge University Press 1985,ISBN 0521274850, S. 12 restricted online version (Google Books))

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