One of the greatest military and trade roads of the ancient world. It was built during the second half of the 2nd c. B.C. Its start was at Dyrrachion and its end to the Hellespont and Byzantium. From ancient writers, we know that the route that was followed from Via Egnatia was not unknown. Thucydides refers to this road and today we believe that its original plan was very similar to the latter that Via Egnatia followed. On the other hand, Alexander the Great marched this same route towards Asia. We take our information about Via Egnatia from a lot of ancient writers, like Polybius, Strabo, Cicero, Caesar and others. According to researches, the road was constructed between 146 B.C. and 120 B.C., the period that Macedonia became a Roman prefecture. It was named from proconsul Gaius Egnatius, the man that we believe was the constructor. At the 2nd c. A.D., the road was repaired, after an order of Emperor Traianus, and the same was done from some of the next Roman Emperors (Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus, Caracalla).

The main characteristic of Via Egnatia is that there were some road marks that informed the voyagers about their present position and the distance from the previous and the next station. The distance was given in Roman miles (1 Roman mile: 1482 meters). Today, we have found some of these road marks (miliaria). Finally, we have to add that today, this same concept is followed from the modern Greeks and the modern Egnatia Odos will minimize the distances between Adriatic Sea and Asia.