Singidunum

Singidunum
Belgrade Serbia
Probing of the medieval walls of the Belgrade Fortress, where the walls of the Roman castrum Singidunum were discovered.
Singidunum
Coordinates	44°49′N 20°28′E / 44.82°N 20.46°E / 44.82; 20.46
Type	Fortification, mixed
Site information
Open to the public	Yes
Site history
Built	1st century
Materials	Stone

Singidunum (Serbian: Сингидунум/Singidunum, from a Celtic *Sindi-dūn-) is the name for the ancient city in Serbia which became Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It was recorded that a Celtic tribe, the Scordisci, settled the area in the 3rd century BC following the Gallic invasion of the Balkans. The Roman Republic conquered the area in 75 BC and later garrisoned the Roman Legio IV Flavia Felix there in 86 AD. It was the birthplace to the Roman Emperor Jovian.

The Gallic invasion of the Balkans brought the settlement of the Scordisci who picked the strategic hilltop at the meeting of the two rivers as the basis for their habitation.

The name Singidun is first attested in 279 BC. The name has Celtic dūn(on) "enclosure, fortress" as its second element.

For singi- there are several theories, the two most widely circulated being that it is a Celtic word for circle, hence "round fort", or it could be named after the Sings, a Thracian tribe that occupied the area prior to the arrival of the Scordisci. Another possibility is that it is a composite name the first part of which (Sin-gi) means "Old prayer" ("sean guí" in modern Irish), implying that this was originally a site of Celtic religious significance, in addition to becoming a fortress (dun). This would also fit in with the ancient Celtic burial practice remnants there.

There is only limited archaeological evidence of the city's foundational period, including some burial sites with grave goods.

The Romans first began to conquer lands surrounding Singidun during the 1st century BC. In 75 BC, Gaius "Quintus" Scribonius Curio, the proconsul of Macedonia, invaded the Balkan interior as far as the Danube, in an effort to drive out the Scordisci, Dardanians, Dacians and other tribes. The Romans had victories during these campaigns, but only stayed briefly, leaving the area outside of Roman control. Thus, very little is known about these operations or when the area was organized into the province of Moesia. It wasn't until the rule of Octavian, when Marcus Licinius Crassus, the grandson of the Caesarian Triumvir and then proconsul of Macedonia, finally stabilized the region with a campaign beginning in 29 BC Moesia was formally organized into a province some time before 6 AD, when the first mention of its governor, Caecina Severus, is made. Singidun was Romanized to Singidunum. It became one of the primary settlements of Moesia, situated between Sirmium (modern Sremska Mitrovica) and Viminacium (modern Kostolac), both of which overshadowed Singidunum in significance, and just across the Sava River from Taurunum (modern Zemun) in Pannonia. Singidunum became an important and strategic position along the Via Militaris, an important Roman road connecting fortresses and settlements along the Danubian limes, or border.