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Justiniana Prima (Tsaritsin Grad): a 6th cent. City in Southern Serbia
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 January 2015
Extract
The Byzantine ruins known as Tsaritsin Grad (the fortress of the Emperor) lie near Leskovats in southern Serbia, between Nish and Skoplje. The excavation of the site was begun by Professor Petkovits between 1937 and 1940. Work was resumed in 1947 as part of the plan laid down by the Archaeological Institute of the Serbian Academy of Sciences. The direction in that year was in the hands of Professor A. Deroko and Professor C. Radojtschits; from 1949 work has been continued by Dr Mano-Zisi. The progress up to 1950 is shown on the air photograph (PLATE I).
The earlier excavations had already led Professor Petkovits to the conclusion that the site was Justiniana Prima, the city which Procopius describes in the following words: ‘Among the Dardanians of Europe … close to the fortress which is called Bederiana, there was a hamlet named Taurisium, whence sprang the Emperor Justinian, the founder of the civilized world. He therefore built a wall of small compass about this place in the form of a square, placing a tower at each corner, and caused it to be called, as it actually is, Tetrapyrgia. And close by this place he built a very notable city, which he named Justiniana Prima—thus paying a debt of gratitude to the home that fostered him . . . In that place also he constructed an aqueduct and so caused the city to be abundantly supplied with ever-running water. And many other enterprises were carried out by the founder of this city—works of great size and worthy of especial note. For to enumerate the churches is not easy and it is impossible to tell in words of the lodgings for magistrates, the great stoas, the fine market places, the fountains, the streets, the baths and the shops. In brief, the city is both great and populous and blessed in every way—a city worthy to be the metropolis of the whole region, for it has attained to this rank. It has also been allotted to the archbishop of Illyricum as his seat, the other cities conceding this honour to it as being first in point of size’.
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- Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1954
References
1 No report on the earlier work has been published, but a number of notes summarizing the results have appeared (e.g. in Cahiers Archéologiques, vol. III and Bulletin Monumental, vol. CVII). An extensive preliminary report of the 1947 excavations is published in vol. I of the new series of Starinar (cf. ibid, 11, 273). The present note is based on the published accounts, supplemented by a report on more recent work kindly forwarded by Dr Mano-Zisi. The writer is indebted to Dr Mano-Zisi for this report and for the provision of photographs and drawings. The sketch plan (fig. 2) is based on that published in Starinar (I, 122), to which has been added the southern church, based on a drawing sent by Dr Mano Zisi.
2 Procopius, de Aedificiis, IV, i, 17-25 (Loeb edition).
3 The layout suggests that the acropolis is an earlier settlement. Can it be identified as Taurisium ? C.A.R.R.
4 A detailed account of this church will be found in vol. I of Starinar.
5 The short life of the city (c. 55-625) makes Tsaritsin Grad interesting .as a dated example of Byzantine town planning and provides a contemporary corpus of architectural forms. Even though there was a survival into the Slav period it should be possible to use the small objects to build up a dated sequence of Byzantine pottery and other products. The further study and publication of these objects will prove of wide interest. C.A.R.R.