NAISSUS
(Niš) Yugoslavia.
The birthplace
of Constantine the Great and Constantius III on the
Nišava river 239 km S of Belgrade (Singidunum).
Following a Roman victory over the Dardani who occupied the region, the town was founded in the late 1st c.
B.C. as a central base for Roman legions. When the
province of Moesia Superior was organized in A.D. 15,
Naissus became an increasingly important commercial
and military center. Claudius II defeated the Goths near
Naissus in A.D. 269.
Constantine I returned often to Naissus during his
reign (A.D. 306-37) and the city profited by his visits.
He founded Mediana as a small suburb of Naissus 4 km
from the city on the road to Serdica (modern Sofia) and
often stayed there himself. Constans, Constantius II, and
Julian all passed some time in Naissus and Mediana and
it was visited by many of the succeeding emperors
(Amm. Marc. 21.10.5, 12.1; 26.5.1). The city was destroyed in the Hunnic invasion of 441. After a brief
revival during the reign of Justinian, the city passed into
Slavic hands in the late 6th c.
Part of the royal residence with mosaic floors has
been excavated at Mediana and a small museum built
around one of the rooms. A bath has also been uncovered as well as parts of other residences. A late Roman cemetery was excavated recently within the confines of the Turkish fortress at Niš where part of the city wall
of Naissus can still be seen. Four Early Christian
churches and a number of vaulted tombs with Christian
wall paintings (4th-6th c.) are in the suburb of Jagodin
Mahala.
The Archaeological Museum at Niš has a moderately
large and varied collection of antiquities from the region.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lazar Mirković, “La nécropole paléochrétienne de Niš,”
Archaeologia Jugoslavica 2 (1956) 85-100.
J. WISEMAN
