Nicomedia first, and Constantinople afterwards, were successively capitals of the Roman world, and when the roads that connected the various districts of Asia Minor with the capitals acquired immensely greater consequence. But of them all only the road from Smyrna to Dorylaion was of considerable importance in Roman times, as it connected Bithynia with the two leading cities of Asia—Smyrna and Ephesus. It passed through Philadelphia, and coincided for a long distance with the road Philadelphia—Julia (see above, § vili.).
The road from the south to Dorylaion was evi- dently the one along which St. Paul travelled when he had been forbidden to preach in Asia (Ac 16°). He turned away north towards Bithynia, intending to preach in the great Greek cities of that province, Nicaea and Nicomedia. But when he came nearer the frontier, probably at Dorylaion, he was forbidden to enter that pro- vince ; and he then turned towards the west, keep- ing near the frontier, perhaps in the hope that he might be permitted to enter at another point. He was, however, impelled onwards towards the sea, until at last he came out on the Aigean coast at Troas. A possible memory of this journey is pre- served in local tradition near the spot where he must have crossed the river.*
5. A road of considerable importance in Roman times connected Perga, the capital of Pamphylia, with Ephesus and the Asian cities. It crosses the Taurus at a low elevation, and comes down on the Lycus valley : there is no difficulty in the path, hich is marked out by nature. According to some recent theories, St. Paul was thinking of making his way to Ephesus already on his first journey from Perga (Ac 13") ; but if Ephesus had been his aim, he would have taken the easy, natural, and frequented road which trade and intercourse ordinarily followed. Instead of doing so, he crossed Taurus by a very difficult path, which can never at any time have been of any importance, and which had no object except to permit occasional communication between the dis- tricts of Perga and of Pisidian Antioch : it seems beyond doubt that a person who went by this way as far as Antioch had as his aim simply to reach that city. :
xii. OTHER RouTEs.—Of the many other im- portant roads of the Empire, few played any part in the early history of Christianity, at least so far as the New Testament is concerned.
1. The road round the north of the Adriatic Sea, from Rome by the Flaminian Way, about 210 miles, to Ariminum, and thence through Ravenna, Altinum (by ship), and Aquileia, led to Meesia, Dacia, and the regions of the Middle and Lower Danube generally, and on to Thrace and Con- stantinople. ;
This road was of growing importance in later times, as the countries through which it. passed increased in civilization. It was of little import- ance in NT times, and was valueless as a through route for communication with the East because it traversed the still purely barbarian country of Thrace, which was formed into a procuratorial province +t by Claudius in B.C. 46, Only under
‘rajan was Thrace constituted as a fully organized province of the Empire. From that time onwards the route which we are describing possessed some considerable importance, not merely as a connexion with many great and improving provinces, but also as an alternative, purely overland road, ulti- mately the Imperial post-road, to the East.
This route crossed the delta of the Padus by ship from Ravenna to Altinum ; but the purely land road went round by Bononia (Bologna) along the Aimilian Way, then north to Verona, and
* See Mys1A, vol. iii. + See above, p. 3849.
Alexandria.
ROADS AND TRAVEL (IN NT) 391
east to Aquileia. By the latter way the distances were (according to the Itineraries)— Rome to Verona 370, and to Aquileia 520 miles Thence to Sirmium (Lower Pannonia) 400
>
3. 9) Sardica (Thrace) Wl” ye » 9) Constantinople ft B49. 5 Total: Rome to Constantinople . 1580 _,, Rome to Alexandria ; Suelo) 98, Courier’s time, Rome to Alex- andria . : , : ; . 63 days Rome to Cesarea in Palestine . 2680 miles Courier’s time, Rome to Cesarea 54 days
But if we suppose that a courier went direct from Ariminum by Ravenna, thence by ship to Altinum, and thence riding to Aquileia,” and that he took even one or two days on ship and other two days for the land journey to Aquileia, 95 miles, he would save two or three days.
These results seem to show clearly that this was the road by which the news of the accession of Pertinax travelled from Rome to Alexandria : the messenger, starting on 1 Jan. A.D. 193, arrived only about the sixty-third or sixty-fourth day in If so, it would follow that this route was established as the regular official path to the East before the end of the 2nd cent., and after the
time of Trajan.
The reason for the change of route was doubtless
twofold. The northerly route was far the most important: it passed through many great military
centres and the capitals of several provinces, while
it communicated with the capitals of several
others which lay off the line of the road. More-
over, the long and sometimes stormy crossing of the Adriatic Sea was avoided by the northern route, which necessitated no voyage except the short and always easy passage of the Bosporus. Thus we can imagine that the northern road de- veloped more and more at the expense of the road through Brundisium. the latter road would not be kept in use during the more temperate seasons of the year, even if the sea-crossing was avoided in the most stormy