The Roman road Montana – Nicopolis ad Istrum – Marcianopolis – Odessos

Abstract

The road crossing the northern half of today’s Bulgaria from west to east runs north of the Balkan Mountains and parallel to the limes road. It is only partially represented in the Tabula Peutingeriana and Itinerarium Antonini. The segment represented in the Tabula Peutingeriana is between Melta and Marcianopolis. The only intermediate station between the two is Nicopolis ad Istrum. Th e segment Odessos - Marcianopolis appears only in Itinerarium Antonini, and is considered part of the coast road. The route segments that do not appear on the ancient cartographic sources were reconstructed based on field research that led to the identifi cation of ancient road segments, traces of settlements, stations, as well as on the basis of inscriptions on milestones. These were found in Topolite, Povlijanovo, Devnija, Odessos, and Tlačane. Except for the latter, they fall chronologically in the period between the reign of Gordian III (238-244) and the reign of Tacitus (275-276). Since the pieces are relatively late, the issue of dating the road is still an open question, as well as its role, in the scientific literature several suppositions were advanced over time.