Via Militaris or Via Diagonalis was an ancient

Roman road Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...

, starting from

Singidunum Singidunum ( sr, Сингидунум/''Singidunum'') was an ancient city which later evolved into modern Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. The name is of Celts, Celtic origin, going back to the time when Celtic tribe Scordisci settled the area in ...

(today the

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

n capital

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

), passing by Danube coast to

Viminacium Viminacium () or ''Viminatium'', was a major city (provincial capital) and military camp of the Roman province of Moesia (today's Serbia), and the capital of '' Moesia Superior'' (hence once a metropolitan archbishopric, now a Latin titular see) ...

(modern

Požarevac Požarevac ( sr-cyr, Пожаревац, ) is a city and the administrative centre of the Braničevo District in eastern Serbia. It is located between three rivers: Danube, Great Morava and Mlava and below the hill Čačalica (208m). As of 2011, ...

), through Naissus (modern

Niš Niš (; sr-Cyrl, Ниш, ; names in other languages) is the third largest city in Serbia and the administrative center of the Nišava District. It is located in southern part of Serbia. , the city proper has a population of 183,164, while ...

), Serdica (modern

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...

), Philippopolis (modern

Plovdiv Plovdiv ( bg, Пловдив, ), is the second-largest city in Bulgaria, standing on the banks of the Maritsa river in the historical region of Thrace. It has a population of 346,893 and 675,000 in the greater metropolitan area. Plovdiv is the c ...

), Adrianopolis (modern

Edirne Edirne (, ), formerly known as Adrianople or Hadrianopolis (Greek: Άδριανούπολις), is a city in Turkey, in the northwestern part of the province of Edirne in Eastern Thrace. Situated from the Greek and from the Bulgarian borders, ...

Turkish Thrace East Thrace or Eastern Thrace ( tr, Doğu Trakya or simply ''Trakya''; el, Ανατολική Θράκη, ''Anatoliki Thraki''; bg, Източна Тракия, ''Iztochna Trakiya''), also known as Turkish Thrace or European Turkey, is the pa ...

), and reaching

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

(modern

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

). This road was connected with

Via Egnatia The Via Egnatia was a road constructed by the Romans in the 2nd century BC. It crossed Illyricum, Macedonia, and Thracia, running through territory that is now part of modern Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . of ...

by other roads: the road along the Axios (or

Vardar The Vardar (; mk, , , ) or Axios () is the longest river in North Macedonia and the second longest river in Greece, in which it reaches the Aegean Sea at Thessaloniki. It is long, out of which are in Greece, and drains an area of around . Th ...

) River, the road from

Serdica Serdika or Serdica (Bulgarian: ) is the historical Roman name of Sofia, now the capital of Bulgaria. Currently, Serdika is the name of a district located in the city. It includes four neighbourhoods: "Fondovi zhilishta"; "Banishora", "Orlandovts ...

Thessalonica Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...

along the Strymon (or Struma) River, and the road from Philippopolis to

Philippi Philippi (; grc-gre, Φίλιπποι, ''Philippoi'') was a major Greek city northwest of the nearby island, Thasos. Its original name was Crenides ( grc-gre, Κρηνῖδες, ''Krenides'' "Fountains") after its establishment by Thasian colon ...

. It was built in the 1st century AD. The length from Singidunum to Constantinople was 924 kilometres. During the first European conquests of

Ottoman Turks The Ottoman Turks ( tr, Osmanlı Türkleri), were the Turkic founding and sociopolitically the most dominant ethnic group of the Ottoman Empire ( 1299/1302–1922). Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks remains scarce, ...

''orta kol'' (lit. ''middle arm'') was following the ''Via Militaris''. In May 2010, while work was done on the Pan-European Corridor X in

, well-preserved remains of the road were excavated in

Dimitrovgrad, Serbia Dimitrovgrad ( sr-cyr, Димитровград) alternatively Caribrod ( bg, Цариброд, Tsaribrod) is a town and municipality located in the Pirot District of southeastern Serbia. According to 2011 census, the municipality of Dimitrovgrad ...

. The eight-metre wide road was constructed from large blocks of stone and had two lanes.

Key towns

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, , S. 18) ( restricted online version (Google Books) *Fred Singleton, Frederick Bernard Singleton: ''A Short History of the Yugoslav Peoples''. Cambridge University Press 1985,, S. 12 restricted online version (Google Books) Militaris Roman sites in Serbia Roman sites in Bulgaria Roman sites in Turkey Roman Thrace Serbia in the Roman era Moesia Romanization of Southeastern Europe {{Europe-road-stub