The majority of the silver coins of Apollonia and Dyrrhachium have a cow and suckling calf on the obverse and a double stellate pattern on the reverse taken from Corcyrean prototypes. The cow/calf fertility symbol is of Euboean origin. The symmetrical geometrical pattern is most probably a schematic representation of the two stars of the Dioscuri. Epidamnos, a colony of Corcyra founded c. 623 B.C., was the chief town of the Dyrrhachii, in whose name its coins were issued. The Romans changed the name of the place to Dyrrhachium, and it became the main port of arrival in Greece for ships from Brundisium, in Italy.

The city was founded as Epidamnos in the ancient region of Illyria in 627 BC by Greek colonists from Corinth and Corcyra. Its geographical position was highly advantageous, being situated around a natural rocky harbour which was surrounded by inland swamps and high cliffs on the seaward side, making the city very difficult to attack from either land or sea. Epidamnos was noted for being a politically advanced society, prompting the ancient philosopher Aristotle to praise its political system in handling the barbarians. However, Corinth and Corcyra quarreled over the city, helping to precipitate the Peloponnesian War in 431 BC. Epidamnos was seized by Glaukias, a Illyrian king, in 312 BC with the help of the Greek oligarchy. Later Queen Teuta of Issa attacked Epidamnos but withdrew when the Romans arrived the same year 229 BC and expelled the Illyrian garrison from the city including it thereafter in their protectorate. The Romans setup a Greek, Demetrius of Pharos to rule over Teuta's kingdom but as client of Rome. He lost his kingdom in 219 BC at the Second Illyrian War including Epidamnus to the Romans. In the Third Illyrian War Epidamnus was attacked by Gentius but he was defeated by the Romans at the same year. The general vicinity of Epidamus was called Epidamnia.

 Roman and Byzantine rule

After the Illyrian Wars with the Roman Republic in 229 BC ended in a decisive defeat for the Illyrians the city passed to Roman rule, under which it was developed as a major military and naval base. The Romans renamed it Dyrrachium (Greek: Δυρράχιον / Dyrrhachion). They considered the name Epidamnos to be inauspicious because of its wholly coincidental similarities with the Latin word damnum, meaning "loss" or "harm". The meaning of Dyrrachium ("bad spine" or "difficult ridge" in Greek) is unclear but it has been suggested that it refers to the imposing cliffs near the city. Julius Caesar's rival Pompey made a stand there in 48 BC before fleeing south to Greece. Under Roman rule, Dyrrachium prospered; it became the western end of the Via Egnatia, the great Roman road that led to Thessalonica and on to Constantinople. Another lesser road led south to the city of Buthrotum, the modern Butrint. The Roman emperor Caesar Augustus made the city a colony for veterans of his legions following the Battle of Actium, proclaiming it a civitas libera (free town).

In the 4th century AD, Dyrrachium was made the capital of the Roman province of Epirus nova. It was the birthplace of the emperor Anastasius I in circa 430. Some time later that century, Dyrrachium was struck by a powerful earthquake which destroyed the city's defences. Anastasius I rebuilt and strengthened the city walls, thus creating the strongest fortifications in the western Balkans. The 12m (36 ft)-high walls were so thick that, according to the Byzantine historian Anna Komnene, four horsemen could ride abreast on them. Significant portions of the ancient city defenses still remain, although they have been much reduced over the centuries.

Like much of the rest of the Balkans, Dyrrachium and the surrounding Dyrraciensis provinciae suffered considerably from barbarian incursions during the Migrations Period. It was besieged in 481 by Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths, and in subsequent centuries had to fend off frequent attacks by the Bulgarians. Unaffected by the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the city continued under the Byzantine Empire as an important port and a major link between the Empire and western Europe.