Illyria, Dyrrhachium

GR2. Illyria, Dyrrhachium. After 229 BC. Silver drachm

Obverse : Cow with suckling calf,and the moneyers name MENISKOS above the cow's back, with a small eagle above the name.
Reverse : Double star pattern in a square, with an inscription naming the city around.

In 229 BCE, when the Romans seized the city the "-damnos" part of the name was inauspicious to Latin ears, and its name, as it was refounded, became Dyrrhachium. Pausanias (6.x.8) says "the modern Roman city is not the ancient one, being at a short distance from it. The modern city is called Dyrrhachium from its founder." The name Dyrrachion is found on coins of the fifth century BCE; in the Roman period Dyrrachium was more common. However, the city maintained a semi-autonomy and was turned into a Roman colony.

Dyrrachium was the landing place for Roman passengers crossing the Ionian Sea from Brundisium, which made it a fairly busy way-station. Here commenced the Via Egnatia, the Roman military road to Thessalonica that connected Roman Illyria with Macedonia and Thrace. The city itself was part of Macedonia, more specifically Epirus Nova. In 48 BCE Pompey was based at Dyrrachium and beat off an attack by Julius Caesar (see Battle of Dyrrhachium). In 345 BCE the city was levelled by an earthquake and rebuilt on its old foundations. In the 4th century CE, Dyrrachium was made the capital of the Roman province of Epirus nova.

The name "Epidamnos" was still used by the Byzantines, as for example in the 13th-century Synopsis Chronike, referring to contemporary events.