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Ad Quintum

Ad Quintum

A Roman bath at a mutatio (change–over station) on the via Egnatia at Ad Quintum is very well–preserved.  It was discovered in 1968 after a landslide.  It was listed in the Bordeaux Itinerary of A.D. 333.   Although "change-over stations" (where horses were changed by official couriers) are well­–known from literary sources, few have been identified archaeologically.

It is located a few miles west of the modern Elbasan (ancient Scampis).

It is possible that Paul travelled on this road, and stopped here at Ad Quintum on his second and/or third Missionary Journeys.  Paul wrote to the Church in Rome from Corinth on his Third Journey.  The current ancient constructions are thought to date to a slightly later period—namely the 2nd–4th centuries A.D. (Note from Dr. Mark Wilson).

Rom. 15:18–19 "I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done—by the power of signs and miracles, through the power of the Spirit. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ."

The heartland of Illyricum included modern day Albania and it would have been logical for him to travel on the via Egnatia—as he did from Philippi to Amphipolis, to Appolonia, to Thessalonica.  And from Thessalonica to continue on the same road to Illyricum!