Location | Modern-day Serbia (Sremska Mitrovica) |
---|---|
Region | Pannonia |
Coordinates | 44°57′58″N19°36′38″E / 44.96611°N 19.61056°E |
Type | Settlement |
History | |
Founded | Before 4th century BC |
Abandoned | 582 |
Cultures | Illyrian, Celt, Roman, Byzantine |
Site notes | |
Condition | In ruins |
Public access | Yes |
Type | Archaeological Site of Exceptional Importance |
Designated | 1948 |
Reference no. | АН 106 |
Sirmium was a city in the Roman province of Pannonia, located on the Sava river, on the site of modern Sremska Mitrovica in the Vojvodina autonomous province of Serbia. First mentioned in the 4th century BC and originally inhabited by Illyrians and Celts, [1] it was conquered by the Romans in the 1st century BC and subsequently became the capital of the Roman province of Pannonia Inferior. In 293 AD, Sirmium was proclaimed one of the four capitals of the Roman Empire. It was also the capital of the Praetorian prefecture of Illyricum and of Pannonia Secunda. The site is protected as an archaeological Site of Exceptional Importance. The modern region of Syrmia (Srem or Srijem) was named after the city.
Sirmium purportedly had 100,000 [2] inhabitants and was one of the largest cities of its time. Colin McEvedy, whose estimates for ancient cities are much lower than the general consensus, put the population at only 7,000, based on the size of the archaeological site. [3] The amount of grain imported between 1 AD and 400 AD was enough to feed 700,000 to 1 million people. [4]
Remains of Sirmium stand on the site of the modern-day Sremska Mitrovica, 55 km (34 mi) west of Belgrade (Roman Singidunum). It was located 30 km (19 mi) west of Bassianae and 145 km (90 mi) of Viminacium, 35 km (22 mi) southwest of Cusum, 35 km (22 mi) southeast of Cuccium and 70 km (43 mi) southwest of Cibalae. Archaeologists have found traces of organized human life on the site of Sirmium dating from 5,000;BC. [5] The city was first mentioned in the 4th century BC and was originally inhabited by the Illyrians and Celts [6] (by the Pannonian-Illyrian Amantini [7] and the Celtic Scordisci [8] ). The Triballi king Syrmus was later considered the eponymous founder of Sirmium, but the roots are different, and the two words only became conflated later. [9] The name Sirmium by itself means "flow, flowing water, wetland", referring to its close river position on the nearby Sava.
With the Celtic tribe of Scordisci as allies, the Roman proconsul Marcus Vinicius took Sirmium in around 14 BC. [10] [11] In the 1st century AD, Sirmium gained the status of a Roman colony, and became an important military and strategic center of the Pannonia province. The Roman emperors Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, and Claudius II prepared war expeditions in Sirmium.
In 103, Pannonia was split into two provinces: Pannonia Superior and Pannonia Inferior; Sirmium became the capital city of the latter.
In 296, Diocletian reorganized Pannonia into four provinces: Pannonia Prima, Pannonia Valeria, Pannonia Savia and Pannonia Secunda, with Sirmium becoming the capital of Pannonia Secunda. He joined them with Noricum and Dalmatia to establish the Diocese of Pannonia, with Sirmium as its capital also.
In 293, with the establishment of the Tetrarchy, the Roman Empire was split into four parts; Sirmium emerged as one of the four capital cities (along with Trier, Mediolanum, and Nicomedia), and was the capital of emperor Galerius. With the establishment of Praetorian prefectures in 318, the capital of the prefecture of Illyricum was Sirmium, remaining so until 379, when the westernmost Diocese of Illyricum, Pannonia (including Sirmium), was detached and joined to the prefecture of Italia assuming the name of Diocese of Illyricum. The eastern part of Illyricum remained a separate prefecture under the East Roman (Byzantine) Empire with its new capital in Thessalonica.
The city also had an imperial palace, a horse-racing arena, a mint, an arena theatre, and a theatre, as well as many workshops, public baths, temples, public palaces, and luxury villas. Ancient historian Ammianus Marcellinus called it "the glorious mother of cities". The mint in Sirmium was connected with the mint in Salona and silver mines in the Dinaric Alps through the Via Argentaria.
At the end of the 4th century, Sirmium came under the sway of the Goths, and later, was again annexed to the East Roman Empire. In 441 the Huns conquered Sirmium; for more than a century it was held by various other tribes, such as the Ostrogoths and Gepids. In 504, Ostrogothic Count Pitzas under Theoderic the Great took Sirmium. For a short time, Sirmium was the center of the Kingdom of the Gepids, and king Cunimund (r. c. 560 – 567) minted gold coins there. After 567, Sirmium was returned to the East Roman Empire. The Pannonian Avars conquered and destroyed the city in 582.
The city was also the location of the Battle of Sirmium that took place in 1167, where a Roman army dispatched by Manuel I Komnenos decisively defeated the forces of Hungary, turning the latter into a satellite state.
Ten Roman emperors were born in this city or in its surroundings: Herennius Etruscus (251), Hostilian (251), Decius (249–251), Claudius II (268–270), Quintillus (270), Aurelian (270–275), Probus (276–282), Maximian (285–310), Constantius II (337–361), and Gratian (367–383).
The last emperor of the united Roman Empire, Theodosius I (378–395), became emperor in Sirmium. The usurpers Ingenuus and Regalianus also declared themselves emperors in this city (in 260) and many other Roman emperors spent some time in Sirmium, including Marcus Aurelius, who might have written parts of his famous work Meditations in the city. According to Tertullian Sirmium was also the site of the death of Marcus Aurelius, of smallpox, in March of 180 CE, [12] although the historian Aurelius Victor recounts that Marcus Aurelius died in Vindobona (province of Pannonia Superior, modern Vienna in Austria).[ citation needed ]
The city had a Christian community by the third century. By the end of the century, it had a bishop, who was probably the metropolitan of all the Pannonian bishops. The first known bishop was Irenaeus, who was martyred during the Diocletianic Persecution in 304. For the next century, the sequence of bishops is known, but in the fifth and sixth centuries, the see falls into obscurity. An unnamed bishop is mentioned in 448. The last known bishop is mentioned in a papal letter of 594, after which the city itself is rarely mentioned and the see probably went into abeyance. [13]
From the time of the first synod of Tyre in 335, Sirmium became a stronghold of the Arian movement and a site of much controversy. Between 347 and 358 there were four synods held in Sirmium. A fifth took place in 375 or 378. All dealt with the Arian controversy. [13]
At Glac near Sirmium a palace is being excavated, [14] indicated by the luxurious construction materials coming from all over the Mediterranean, such as red and green porphyry from Egypt and the Peloponnese, and marble from Tunisia, Greece and Italy. Some say it is that of Emperor Maximian and according to Aurelius Victor built on the place where his parents worked as laborers on the estate. [15]
During the construction of the hospital in 1971, more than eighty altars were found in a monumental sanctuary to Jupiter, which is the second largest in Europe.[ citation needed ] Sirmium had two bridges that bridged the river Sava, Ad Basanti, and Artemida's bridges according to historical sources.[ citation needed ] After 313 Sirmium became an important Christian center. So far revealed are eight early Christian churches dedicated to St. Irenaeus, St. Demetrius, and Sv. Sinenot.[ citation needed ]
During work on the new Sremska Mitrovica trade center in 1972, a worker accidentally broke into an old Roman pot, about 2m deep, over the site of an old Sirmium settlement. 33 gold Roman coins enclosed in a leather pouch were found inside a Roman house wall, probably the hidden savings of a wealthy Roman family stashed centuries ago. Of this extraordinary rare find of Sirmium minted coins were 4 Constantius II era coins, considered the most valuable examples from the late Roman Empire of the fourth century AD. Ironically, the worker's name was Zlatenko (meaning Golden, or Golden Man in Serbian, Aurelius in Latin).
Sirmium also had a Roman Hippodrome. [16] [17] [18] A colossal building about 150m wide and 450m long lies directly under the Sremska Mitrovica town center and just beside the old Sirmium Emperor's Palace (one of just a few Sirmium publicly accessible archeological sites). The presence of the arena has clearly affected the layout of the present town (Sremska Mitrovica is today about 2–4m above the ground line of the former Sirmium settlement). Recently announced cultural and archeological projects for preserving and popularising Sirmium sites haven't included any activity dealing with the arena, probably due to the extent of the large arena — the entire present town center might have to be excavated.
The 280's decade ran from January 1, 280, to December 31, 289.
Year 282 (CCLXXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Probus and Victorinus. The denomination 282 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Pannonia was a province of the Roman Empire bounded on the north and east by the Danube, on the west by Noricum and upper Italy, and on the southward by Dalmatia and upper Moesia. It included the modern regions western Hungary, western Slovakia, eastern Austria, northern Croatia, north-western Serbia, northern Slovenia, and northern Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Marcus Aurelius Probus was Roman emperor from 276 to 282. Probus was an active and successful general as well as a conscientious administrator, and in his reign of six years he secured prosperity for the inner provinces while withstanding repeated invasions of barbarian tribes on almost every sector of the frontier.
Sremska Mitrovica is a city in Serbia. It is situated on the left bank of the Sava river. As of 2022, the city has a total population of 40,144 inhabitants, while its administrative area has a population of 72,580 inhabitants.
Sextus Aurelius Victor was a historian and politician of the Roman Empire. Victor was the author of a short history of imperial Rome, entitled De Caesaribus and covering the period from Augustus to Constantius II. The work was published in 361. Under the emperor Julian (361-363), Victor served as governor of Pannonia Secunda; in 389 he became praefectus urbi, senior imperial official in Rome.
The Scordisci were an Iron Age cultural group who emerged after the Celtic settlement of Southeast Europe, and who were centered in the territory of present-day Serbia, at the confluence of the Savus (Sava), Dravus (Drava), Margus (Morava) and Danube rivers. They were historically notable from the beginning of the third century BC until the turn of the common era, and consolidated into a tribal state. At their zenith, their core territory stretched over regions comprising parts of present-day Serbia, Croatia, Bulgaria and Romania, while their influence spread even further. After the Roman conquest in the 1st century AD, their territories were included into the Roman provinces of Pannonia, Moesia and Dacia.
Syrmia is a region of the southern Pannonian Plain, which lies between the Danube and Sava rivers. It is divided between Serbia and Croatia. Most of the region is flat, with the exception of the low Fruška gora mountain stretching along the Danube in its northern part.
The Srem District is one of seven administrative districts of the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. It lies in the geographical regions of Srem and Mačva. According to the 2022 census results, it has a population of 282,547 inhabitants. The administrative center is the city of Sremska Mitrovica.
Pannonia Inferior, lit. Lower Pannonia, was a province of the Roman Empire. Its capital was Sirmium. It was one of the border provinces on the Danube. It was formed in the year 103 AD by Emperor Trajan who divided the former province of Pannonia into two parts: Pannonia Superior and Pannonia Inferior. The province included parts of present-day states of Hungary, Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The province was bordered to the east by a Sarmatian tribe—the Iazyges. Later, the Vandals appeared to the north-east.
These are lists of political office-holders in Vojvodina. The lists also include local rulers of Banat, Bačka and Srem, including parts of mentioned regions, which are not part of present-day Vojvodina, as well as other rulers of larger political units that had specific local ties to territory of present-day Vojvodina.
Illyricum was a Roman province that existed from 27 BC to sometime during the reign of Vespasian. The province comprised Illyria/Dalmatia in the south and Pannonia in the north. Illyria included the area along the east coast of the Adriatic Sea and its inland mountains, eventually being named Dalmatia. Pannonia included the northern plains that now are a part of Serbia, Croatia and Hungary. The area roughly corresponded to part or all of the territories of today's Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Slovenia.
The praetorian prefecture of Illyricum was one of four praetorian prefectures into which the Late Roman Empire was divided.
Pannonia Prima was an ancient Roman province. It was formed in the year 296, during the reign of Emperor Diocletian. Previously, it was a part of the province of Pannonia Superior, which, along with Pannonia Inferior, was gradually divided into four administrative units: Pannonia Prima, Pannonia Secunda, Valeria, and Savia. This transition was completed by the time of Constantine. According to the Notitia Dignitatum, Pannonia Prima was governed by a Praeses.
Pannonia Secunda was one of the provinces of the Roman Empire. It was formed in 296 AD, during the reign of Emperor Diocletian. The capital of the province was Sirmium. Pannonia Secunda comprised parts of present-day Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Diocese of Pannonia, from 395 known as the Diocese of Illyricum, was a diocese of the Late Roman Empire. The seat of the vicarius was Sirmium.
Pannonia was a Byzantine province, which existed in present-day Syrmia region of Serbia in the 6th century. Its capital was Sirmium.
The Bellum Batonianum was a military conflict fought in the Roman province of Illyricum in the 1st century CE, in which an alliance of native peoples of the two regions of Illyricum, Dalmatia and Pannonia, revolted against the Romans. The rebellion began among native peoples who had been recruited as auxiliary troops for the Roman army. They were led by Bato the Daesitiate, a chieftain of the Daesitiatae in the central part of present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, and were later joined by the Breuci, a tribe in Pannonia led by Bato the Breucian. Many other tribes in Illyria also joined the revolt.
Dalmatia was a Roman province. Its name is derived from the name of an Illyrian tribe called the Dalmatae, which lived in the central area of the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It encompassed the northern part of present-day Albania, much of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro,and Serbia, thus covering an area significantly larger than the current Croatian and Montenegrin region of Dalmatia. Originally this region was called Illyria or Illyricum.
Much of the territory of the modern state of Serbia was part of the Roman Empire and later the Eastern Roman Empire. In particular, the region of Central Serbia was under Roman rule for about 800 years, starting from the 1st century BC, interrupted by the arrival of the Slavs into the Balkans during the 6th century, but continued after fall of the First Bulgarian Empire in the early 11th century and permanently ended with the rise of the Second Bulgarian Empire in the late 12th century. The territories were administratively divided into the provinces of Moesia, Pannonia and Dardania. Moesia Superior roughly corresponds to modern Serbia proper; Pannonia Inferior included the eastern part of Serbia proper; Dardania included the western part of Serbia proper. After its reconquest from the Bulgarians by Emperor Basil II in 1018, it was reorganized into the Theme of Bulgaria.