Via Militaris (Balkans)
The Via Militaris or Via Diagonalis , rarely and un-Latin also Via Singidunum, was an ancient Roman road connection in the Balkans ( Southeast Europe ), which established the land connection between Europe and Asia Minor . For a long time it was the only mainland route between the Orient and the Occident . During the crusades , the Ottoman sieges of Vienna , the raids of the Huns and Avars , and the migrations of the Goths and Slavs , it played a role in world history.
The Via Diagonalis, the great Balkan road ( Zagreb - Belgrade - Niš - Sofia - Istanbul ), was an important military axis that held the Roman Empire together for almost four centuries.
Today the Via Militaris has fallen into disrepair and can only be identified precisely in a few places. The exact location of all way stations cannot be determined exactly, but the name of all way stations is known from the sources. The southeast end of the Via Militaris was undisputedly Constantinople . The north-western end is not precisely defined and, depending on the author, is located in Singidunum (today Belgrade ), Viminatium , Sirmium , Aquincum (today Budapest ) or even Carnuntum (today Vienna ). In May 2010, during the work on transport corridor 10 in Serbia, a well-preserved piece of Via Militaris was excavated in Dimitrovgrad in eastern Serbia . The eight-meter-wide stretch of road was built from large stone blocks and had two lanes.
Even before the expansion of this military road by the Romans, this route, along with the Via Egnatia and the Danube Path along the Danube Limes , was an ancient artery and one of the main roads of the Balkans. This military road running diagonally from northwest to southeast over the Balkans was the shortest connection between Central Europe and the Middle East in ancient times . As a Roman military route, it connected the most important and largest Roman cities in this region with the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire , Constantinople. The Via Militaris led through the Roman provinces of Pannonia superior and inferior, Moesia superior , Tracia and Bithynia et Pontus . New settlements arose along the Via Militaris and grew into cities.
The Via Militaris in the Balkans was a military road of supraregional importance and was used for the rapid relocation of the Roman legions . The state, the Roman Empire , was the planner, builder and sponsor of the military roads, which he laid out from a strategic and logistical point of view in order to secure the rapid supra-regional connection for his armies. After the conquest of the Balkan Peninsula by the Romans, the Via Militaris increased in importance and was given the durable paving of polygonal stones that is so typical of Roman roads. However, the road surface on many sections of the road consisted only of gravel. The street was 9 paces (6 meters) wide and slightly raised in the middle of the street. The builders of Roman military roads based the width of the street on the six columns of troops or the width of two wagons.
This strategically important road was laid out at the time of Emperor Nero (37–68) in the 1st century AD. It was completed under Emperor Trajan (53–117). The Via Egnatia , which ran in an east-west direction across the southern Balkans, was the forerunner of the Via Militaris.
Even after the Roman era, it was one of the great transport and cultural routes in Europe. Today the E75 and E80 run along these cities on the old Roman road, which are of similar importance for European transit traffic. The Serbian motorway from Niš to Dimitrovgrad on the Serbian-Bulgarian border follows the course of the old Via Militaris as does the route of the Orient Express .
Surname
The Romans said it was also known as the "Via Singidunum".
Both the names Via Militaris and Via Diagonalis are of more recent origin and were not used in Roman times. The name Via Militaris is ambiguous, as it was also used to describe the military roads (military roads) of the Roman Empire in general . With the name Via Diagonalis ("Diagonal Street") the ambiguous name Via Militaris is avoided.
The route between Belgrade and Constantinople was usually referred to as the "military road" based on studies by Konstantin Jireček (1877) . Jireček saw additional confirmation of this name in the discovery of a Roman inscription from AD 61, which was discovered near present-day Plovdiv. Felix Kanitz simply called this street "Viminacium - Constantinople Heerweg".
In Bulgarian literature the Via Militaris is often referred to as:
- "Great diagonal street" (Bulgar. "Голям диагонален път" / goljam diagonalen pat; French "la grande route militaire")
- or simply "Central Street" (bulg. "централен път" / central pat)
Via Traiana
From 1600 the Via Militaris was also known as Via Traiana . Other roads that were built during the time of the Roman Emperor Trajan are also known as Via Traiana.
As early as Roman antiquity and the early Byzantine period, the following streets were named: a side branch of the Via Appia , a Roman road running parallel to the southern end of the Via Appia ( Via Traiana or Via Appia Traiana ). This Via Traiana, built in AD 109 under Emperor Marcus Ulpius Traianus (53–117), was an alternative route to the Via Appia that was one day faster. It branched off the Via Appia in Beneventum and also led east of it to Brundisium ( Brindisi ), which was also the end point of the Via Appia. The Via Traiana was the original route of the Via Appia, which was later only an alternative route to the Via Appia.
Between Butuntum ( Bitonto ) and Gnathia , the Via Traiana had two parallel courses: on the one hand the coastal road Via Traiana Costiera and on the other hand the Via Traiana Interna, which runs further inland . The Via Traiana Calabra extended the Via Traiana from Brindisi to Hydruntum ( Otranto ).
Furthermore, there was a Via Traiana Nova in the province of Arabia Petraea , also known as Via Nova or Via Nova Traiana, before that also as Via Regia. This connected Egypt with Palestine and Syria.
There was also another street in the Balkans, in today's Bulgaria, which is still called Trajan Street (Bulgarian Траянов път / Trajanow pat). It connected them Oescus or Novae on the Danube , via Trojan and Melta ( Lovetsch ) in the Balkan Mountains , Philippopolis (Via Militaris), Rhodope Mountains with the Via Egnatia on the Aegean Sea . You Imagined the shortest route from the Danube Limes to the ports on the Aegean Sea in the province of Thrace is. It crossed the Trajanstraße the Hemus Mountains (now the Balkan Mountains) via the Troy pass (bulg. Троянски проход ). The current city of Trojan was built on this street.
Another road in the Balkans is the rock road at the Iron Gate , which is referred to in Byzantine sources from the end of the 6th century as Trajan's path (Greek tribos Traianu ). This name is derived from the building activities of the Roman emperor at the Iron Gate, which is also indicated by the Trajan plaque ( Tabula Traiana ) attached there . However, during Roman times this street was called Via iuxtram danubii .
In the 16th century, only this one military road, the Via Militaris, was referred to as Via Traiana in the Balkans.
No milestones or inscriptions have survived that testify that Emperor Trajan initiated the construction or expansion of the Via Traiana. It is not known why the road from Budapest via Belgrade to Constantinople was named after the Roman emperor Trajan by travelers in the 16th century. It seems most likely to be a term anchored in the oral tradition of the peoples of Southeast Europe (folk tales) that was adopted by travelers.
Routing
The Via Militaris stretched from Belgrade to Constantinople. The first 200 km of the total distance of 924 km it followed the course of the Morava river .
The route of the Roman roads in the late Roman Empire, including the military roads, was mapped in the historical Tabula Peutingeriana map, but the route is only approximated. The Antonini Itinerarium also lists Roman roads and settlements, but without a map. Also valuable information about cities, horse changing stations (mutationes; Mutatio - small intermediate station) and hostels (mansiones; Mansio - large station, for overnight stays, with stable) and the distances between the individual stages can be found in the Itinerarium Burdigalense , the travelogue of an anonymous author of a pilgrimage from the years 333 to 334, which contains a list of all cities and stations passed. The Itinerarium Burdigalense shows that in the 3rd and 4th centuries Via Militaris 31 paved 670 Roman miles (milia passuum; short: mp) (1 Roman mile = 1482 m; thus: 670 Roman miles = 993 km) Places and 43 stations were. Usually one traveled from mansio to mansio , so the distance between them was a “ day's journey ”. Some place names of settlements along the Via Militaris can also be found in the Geographike Hyphegesis , an atlas created around 150 by Claudius Ptolemy (100–150).
The Via Militaris had been measured. After every Roman mile, there was usually a Roman miliarium along the Heerstraße , which indicated the distance to the neighboring cities or bore thank-you inscriptions.
There were also fortresses (castellum) or individual towers (turres) on military roads, numerous horse changing stations (mutatio), where horses and wagons were changed during the day, and inns ( taberna ) in many places .
The 1054-kilometer route branched off from Via Egnatia to the west of today's Istanbul and led northwest to the Danube , which was then called Ister in this area .
The Via Militaris connected the cities of Hadrianopolis (today's Edirne ), Philippopolis (today Plovdiv ), Serdica (today the Bulgarian capital Sofia ), Naissus (today Niš ) with Viminatium on the Danube, where it met the Danube route .
It was connected to the Via Egnatia by other major roads : the Naissus- Stobi road along the Axios river (today Vardar in Serbia, Greece and the Republic of Macedonia), Serdica– Pautalia -Thessaloniki along the Strimon river (today the Struma in Bulgaria and Greece), the road Lissae - Nicopolis ad Nestum -Thessaloniki along the river Nestum (today Mesta in Bulgaria and Nestos in Greece) and the road Phillipopolis - Stanimaka -Phillipi (today in Bulgaria and Greece). Most cities benefited from their location on this important road.
In Naissus , today's Niš, which at that time became a road junction in the Balkans, a junction led to Singidunum , today's Serbian capital Belgrade, and to Bononia (today's Vidin ). From Singidunum or Bononia you could travel north along the Danube via Carnuntum , the then capital of the province of Pannonia , to Vindobona (today's Vienna ). In a southerly direction one reached the Danube Delta and the Via Pontica via Ratiaria , Augustae, Oescus , Novae , Sexaginta Prista , Dorostorum .
Roman Empire
The Via Militaris was an important line of communication for the protection and defense of the eastern borders of the Roman Empire. It was part of the land connection between Italy and Byzantium and therefore important for the exchange between the western and eastern halves of the empire.
However, the Via Egnatia, which was connected to the Via Appia after a ferry connection between Egnatia in Apulia and Dyrrachium (today Durrës in Albania), represented a more direct and shorter connection between Rome and Byzantium than the Via Militaris. The ferry connection, however, did not allow the rapid transfer of large units with heavy equipment and their entourage .
Another alternative route, which led via Orjachowo among other things , was a route from Belgrade along the Via Istrum on the Danube to Constantinople ( Via Singiduno usque ad Constantinopolim per ripam Danubii / The road from Singidunum to Constantinople along the Danube ).
The travel time from Belgrade to Constantinople was given as 32 overnight camps by the Romans or 26 day trips by trade caravans.
Byzantine Empire
With the division of the empire in 395 , the imperial residence was created in Constantinople and after the collapse of the Roman Empire during the migration of peoples, Constantinople remained as the only capital of the empire reduced to its eastern half, which is now also known as the Byzantine Empire . With the relocation of the capital of the Roman Empire to Constantinople, the geostrategic importance of the Balkans and its military roads also increased. It now moved to the center of the empire "shifted" to the east and became the hinterland of the new center. The Balkans became vital as a defensive zone for the Byzantine Empire, especially against the frequent barbarian incursions into the Balkans in the 4th to 7th centuries.
The reconquest of the Balkans by Basil II and the conversion of Hungary to Christianity at the end of the 10th century were probably important factors in the reopening and revitalization of the land route from Europe via the Balkans to Jerusalem.
Even in the Middle Ages, the Via Militaris remained an important east-west connection and was used by the crusader armies who advanced overland towards Palestine. In the first (1096-1099), second (1147-1149) and third crusade (1189-1192), the crusader armies marched along the Via Militaris. The Serbian army used the Via Militaris when they captured Sofia in the 1st Crusade. In the 2nd crusade, the army of Konrad III marched . , Friedrich Barbarossa's army on the Via Militaris in the 3rd crusade . The chronicler Arnold von Lübeck reported that the Sebastokrator Alexios I, nephew of Emperor Isaak II Angelos , had ordered that all narrow streets should be widened for the knights of the 3rd Crusade and their wagons.
The Via Militaris and the Via Egnatia played an important role in the Balkans until the late Byzantine period. The imperial government ensured the maintenance of the more important roads of the empire.
In the 9th century there were stations along the great imperial roads that offered accommodation and horse change for privileged travelers. Overall, however, at that time the population was hardly mobile and travel was not permitted without official permission. The Byzantine highways were of far greater importance for the military than for the merchants, especially since Constantinople, the only major city of the Byzantine Empire, as a port city, was mainly supplied from the sea.
For the Byzantines the Via Militaris was the “royal route”, in Serbian sources it was “carski drum” (“royal route”) or Konstantinopler Strasse (“Carigradski drum”).
After the Byzantines had crossed the Via Militaris several times during their campaigns against the Bulgarians (986, 998, 1002 and between 1003 and 1013), the Byzantines used the Via Militaris for the last time in 1016, when Basil II with his armed force from Constantinople via Philippopolis (Plovdiv) moved to Triadica (before Serdica, today Sofia) and went on the campaign against Kraka of Pernik (Bulgarian Кракра Пернишки) in Pernik .
Ottoman Empire
After the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, the Via Militaris continued to be used by the Ottomans as the "Great Military Road" . The Ottomans built forts (palanka) to protect the military roads.
At the time of the Ottoman Empire, the Via Militaris was the most frequented overland route in the Balkans, as it connected the imperial residence of the Habsburg monarchy in Vienna with the Sultan's court in Istanbul across the Balkan peninsula . The Via Militaris was also called via Traiana from 1600 onwards .
The Via Militaris led the Ottoman troops to the gates of Vienna twice: for the first (1529) and for the second Turkish siege of Vienna (1683). For travelers in the Ottoman Empire, the 1,100 km journey on the Via Militaris from Belgrade to Istanbul took up to a month, depending on the season. Other authors give the travel time from Constantinople to Belgrade as 40 days. Because of the better road between the two residences in Edirne and Istanbul, the journey on this section of the route only took 4 to 5 days.
The Serbs invaded Bulgaria via the Via Militaris in the Serbian-Bulgarian War (1885).
List of waypoints (cities, waystations, rivers)
literature
- Konstantin Jireček : The military route from Belgrade to Constantinople and the Balkan passes. A historical-geographical study. F. Tempsky publishing house, Prague 1877 (habilitation thesis, German) ( TPDF text for download ).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Konstantin Josef Jireček: The military route from Belgrade to Constantinople and the Balkan passes. A historical-geographical study. Published by F. Tempsky, Prague 1877. Reprinted by Hamer Verlag, Amsterdam 1967.
- ↑ Stephen Mitchell: The administration of Roman Asia from 133 BE to AD 250 . In: Local autonomy and Roman regulatory power in the imperial provinces from the 1st to the 3rd century . Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-486-56385-8 , p. 18 ( limited online version on Google Books ).
- ↑ The Hungarian state - a factor in Bulgarian history in the 10th century ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as broken. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 427 kB)
- ↑ Mihailo Popović: FROM BUDAPEST TO ISTANBUL. The Via Traiana as reflected in travel literature from the 14th to 16th centuries. Vienna, PDF
- ↑ CIL III No. 6123
- ^ Felix Philipp Kanitz: The Kingdom of Serbia and the Serbian People: - 2nd Bd. Country and Population.
- ↑ "the paved road, which is also called in whole Bulgaria via Traiana a Traiano imperatore authore" Source: Reinhold Lubenau: Description of the journeys of Reinhold Lubenau. Ed. W. Sahm. Königsberg / Pr .: Ferd. Beyers Buchhandlung 1912-1915, page 100. quoted by Mihailo Popovic: FROM BUDAPEST TO ISTANBUL. The Via Traiana as reflected in travel literature from the 14th to 16th centuries. Eudora-Verlag, Leipzig 2010, ISBN 978-3-938533-07-9 ( introduction ; PDF; 87 kB)
- ↑ See Michael Wendel: ZAKSSchriften Volume 6: Karasura III: The traffic connection in early Byzantine times (4th-8th centuries AD) , Langenweißbach, 2005
- ↑ Mihailo Popovic: FROM BUDAPEST TO ISTANBUL. The Via Traiana as reflected in travel literature from the 14th to 16th centuries. Eudora-Verlag, Leipzig 2010, ISBN 978-3-938533-07-9 ( introduction ; PDF; 87 kB)
- ^ Fred Singleton: A short history of the Yugoslav Peoples. Cambridge University Bridge, 1989, ISBN 0-521-25478-7
- ↑ Listing of the Balkan Settlements
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from June 4, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Report of the anonymous pilgrimage from Bordeaux (333 AD) (see also: 1. Latin text of the entire journey ( memento of the original of November 14, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please Check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note .; 2. English text translation of the section from Sirmium to Constantinople ( Memento of the original from June 4, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note - with the translations of the Latin place and river names)
- ↑ The Balkan Provinces according to Ptolemaei Geographia ( Memento of the original from October 15, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Edgar Hösch: History of the Balkan Countries: from the early days to the present , p. 20; Beck 2008; ISBN 9783406572999 ; at google books
- ^ Fred Singleton, Frederick Bernard Singleton: A Short History of the Yugoslav Peoples . Cambridge University Press 1985, ISBN 0-521-27485-0 , p. 12 ( limited online version on Google Books ).
- ↑ Fabrizio Vanni: OVERLAND BALKAN ROUTES IN THE MIDDLE AGES (Florence; PDF; 334 kB)
- ↑ Elena Koytcheva: Logistical Problems for the Movements for the early Crusades through the Balcans: Transport and Road Systems. In: Proceedings of the 21st International Congress of Byzantine Studies: London, August 21-26, 2006 . Ashgate Publishing Ltd. 2006, ISBN 978-0-7546-5740-8 , p. 54 ( limited online version on Google Books ).
- ↑ Thomas Szabó (ed.): The world of European roads. From antiquity to the early modern period (p. 21) Böhlau Verlag; Cologne Weimar Vienna 2009; ISBN 9783412203368
- ↑ Elena Koytcheva: Logistical Problems for the Movements for the early Crusades through the Balcans: Transport and Road Systems. (P. 54) In: Proceedings of the 21st International Congress of Byzantine Studies: London, August 21-26, 2006 . Ashgate Publishing Ltd. 2006, ISBN 978-0-7546-5740-8 , p. 54 ( limited online version on Google Books ).
- ^ Paul Meinrad Strässle: War and Warfare in Byzantium. The war of Emperor Basil II against the Bulgarians (976-1019). Böhlau Verlag, Cologne 2006, ISBN 978-3-412-17405-7 , p. 113
- ^ Edgar Hösch: History of the Balkans. CH Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-50856-1
- ^ Klaus Kreiser: The Ottoman State 1300-1922. Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-486-58588-9 , p. 12
