XIV.] ROADS THROUGH ASIA AND AFRICA. 305
lines to Brundisium. One of these led to this port through the
centre of the country by Venusia and Tarentum, while the otter,
passing at once through the Apennines into Apulia, took a more
northerly course by Canusium and the coast of the Adriatic. On
the farther side of that sea, opposite Brundisium,
the Egnatian Way commenced at two points,
Dyrrachium towards the north, and Apollonia
towards the south. The highways which started from these
converged at a place in the interior called Clodiana; and from
that station the road threaded the difficult defiles of the Illyrian
mountains as far as the Lacus Lychnitis (Lake of Ochrida); after
which it crossed the Scardus range to Heraclea (Monastir), and
passed by Edessa and Pella to Thessalonica. This portion of the
route was sometimes known by the separate name of the Via
Candavia. The remainder of the Egnatian Way proceeded by
Amphipolis and Philippi to Byzantium.
In Asia Minor the main road from the Asiatic shore of the
Bosporus led by way of Nicomedia to Ancyra Main Roads
(Angora) in the upland levels of Galatia, and after through Asia
crossing Cappadocia descended through the Cilician
Gates in the Taurus range to Tarsus; from that place it proceeded
round the head of the gulf of Issus and over the Mons Amanus to
Antioch. From northern Syria there was a choice of routes by which
to reach Seleucia on the Tigris at the eastern extremity of the Roman
dominion. One of these, which was at once the longer and the
easier way, traversed Mesopotamia, after crossing the Euphrates at
the Zeugma, or bridge of boats, which was situated in the neigh-
bourhood of the modern Biredjik, where that stream approaches
nearest to the Mediterranean; for this place of passage had
superseded the earlier transit by Thapsacus, which was two
hundred miles lower down the course of the river. The other
route, which was more direct, led across the Arabian desert by
way of Palmyra. Syria and Palestine, again, were intersected
by a highway which ran from Antioch to the frontier of Egypt;
and in the latter country a road was carried up the valley of the
Nile as far as Coptos, the central trading-station of the country,
somewhat to the northward of Thebes. From thence lines of
communication reached to the ports of Myos Hormos and
T. 20