{"id":7432,"date":"2021-05-05T12:00:27","date_gmt":"2021-05-05T19:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.roamintheempire.com\/?p=7432"},"modified":"2021-08-31T11:14:38","modified_gmt":"2021-08-31T18:14:38","slug":"serdica-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.roamintheempire.com\/index.php\/2021\/05\/05\/serdica-part-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Serdica, Thracia – Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Bronze<\/a>
Bronze helmet of unknown provenance from the 4th century BCE. National Archaeological Museum of Bulgaria.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The environs of the Roman settlement of Serdica (modern Sofia, Bulgaria) seems to have been inhabited at least as early as the 3rd<\/sup> millennium BCE, the date of the first significant settlement found in the area. Though occupation may date back much further. The Thracian population group, the Tilataei, established a settlement at the site of Serdica (possibly called Serdica or some derivative at the time) sometime in the 6th<\/sup> century BCE. Upon the foundation of the Odrysian Kingdom in the early 5th<\/sup> century BCE, Serdica was incorporated into that political entity. Serdica was sacked by Philip II of Macedon around 340 BCE during his conquest of the Odrysian Kingdom.<\/p>\n

At some point between the 4th<\/sup> and 1st<\/sup> centuries BCE the Serdi population group emerged, perhaps taking their name from the city of Serdica around which they were centered, or alternatively the name of the settlement deriving from the people. The circumstances of their emergence is not completely clear; they are sometimes described as being a Celto-Thracian group resulting from the Celtic migrations to the area in the 4th<\/sup> and 3rd<\/sup> centuries BCE, but alternatively surmised to be perhaps even strictly Thracian in origin. The Serdi don\u2019t appear in the historical record until about the middle of the 1st<\/sup> century BCE, shortly before the Roman conquest of Serdica.<\/p>\n

\"Baths<\/a>
Baths of the Church of St. George Rotunda.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Roman conquest came in 28 BCE, when after conducting campaigns against the Bastarnae in Scythia, Marcus Licinius Crassus (grandson of the famous triumvir of the same name) was attacked by the Serdi and Maedi passing through the area on the way back to Macedonia in 29 BCE. He returned the following year to pacify those populations and subsequently conquered Serdica in the process. According to Cassius Dio, he had the hands of the prisoners of the campaign cut off. Serdica did not remain under direct Roman control, though, and was administered by the Odrysian client kingdom until the creation of the province of Thracia in 46 CE. It became an important settlement, notably on the road between Naissus (modern Ni\u0161, Serbia) and Philippopolis<\/a> (modern Plovdiv) and near the source of the Oescus (modern Iskar River), a tributary of the Danubius (Danube). During the reign of Trajan, the city was elevated to municipium<\/em> and given the name Ulpia Serdica.<\/p>\n

Serdica was sacked during the Costoboci invasion of the Marcomannic Wars about 170 CE, resulting in the construction of robust fortifications in the following decade. During the third century CE, two emperors were born in or around Serdica; Aurelian in 214 CE and Galerius in 258 CE. Gothic raids resulted in another sack of the city around 268 CE. After Aurelian abandoned Dacia in 271 CE, Diocletian subsequently broke Thracia up into a number of new provinces, one of which Serdica was appointed as the capital; Dacia Mediterranea. The city rose to great prominence in the 3rd<\/sup> and 4th<\/sup> centuries, with Constantine apparently considering making the city an imperial capital and Galerius issuing the Edict of Serdica, abolishing Christian persecutions in 311 CE, shortly before he died there as well.<\/p>\n

In 343 CE, the Council of Serdica (or Synod of Serdica) was held in the city to attempt to reconcile the Arian controversies. Attila the Hun sacked the city once again in 477 CE, but it was later reconstructed under Justinian I and flourished as a Byzantine city through the 9th<\/sup> century CE.<\/p>\n