Apollonia in 218 B.C.

Apollonia — Spring 218 BC · A Greek City Under Roman Faith.

Apollonia — the flourishing Greek city the Corinthians and Corcyraeans planted on the Illyrian shore of the Adriatic, where the river Aoös runs down to the sea in the land of the Taulantii. A wealthy and famously well-governed trading polis — its constitution praised by Aristotle himself — it stands on a low ridge above the river plain, drawing its riches from the carrying-trade between Greece, Italy and the Illyrian interior, and from the slaves, hides, timber, pitch and silver of the barbarian hinterland. Nearby smoulder the celebrated eternal fires of the bitumen springs, the Nymphaeum, a marvel of the region. Since the war with the Illyrians (229 BC) Apollonia has placed itself under the protection of Rome, in fidem, alongside its sister-city Epidamnus, sheltering as a free Greek city beneath Roman faith against the raids of the Illyrians and the ambitions of Macedon.

Apollonia sits on the Illyrian Adriatic, a little inland from the sea on the right bank of the river Aoös, in the territory of the Taulantian Illyrians. A joint foundation of Corinth and her own daughter Corcyra, it has grown into one of the great Greek emporia of these waters — the gateway by which the trade of the Illyrian interior reaches the sea, and a natural landing for any power crossing from Italy to the Greek mainland. Its harbour on the Aoös and the road that climbs from it inland make the city a hinge between three worlds: Greek, Italian and Illyrian. Eleven years ago, when the Illyrians under Queen Teuta fell upon the Greek cities of this coast, Apollonia gave itself into the faith of Rome; and under that protection it now keeps its freedom, its laws and its prosperity, watching the Illyrian tribes at its back and the growing reach of Macedon beyond the mountains.