Serbia - Caricin Grad

Administrative geography: the Justiniana Prima question

Justiniana Prima is referred to in many 6th-century historical sources. Procopius tells in his DeAedificiis that Justinian founded this town close to Tauresium, the village of his birth, and that he constructed all sorts of buildings there in order to make it the metropolis for the entire region. Actually, Justinian himself, under a law in 535 (novella 11), declared his intention to transfer the seat of the praetorian prefecture of Illyricum (an administrative district covering the central Balkan area and stretching from the Danube to the Peloponnese) from Thessaloniki to Justiniana Prima. He also gave the bishop of JustinianaPrima jurisdiction over the entire DioceseofDacia (i.e. the northern half of Illyricum). Indeed, it is very probable that this law went unheeded at civil government level and that the prefecture remained in Thessaloniki. On the other hand, it is clear that the foundation of JustinianaPrima permanently changed the ecclesiastical organisation of the Balkans: in 545 another of Justinian’s laws (novella 131) confirmed the rights and privileges of the archbishop, which was once again echoed at the end of the century in the correspondence of Pope Gregory the Great (590-604).

The identification of Caricin Grad as Justiniana Prima is still theoretical, since no inscription has so far been found bearing its ancient name. Nevertheless, most experts accept that it is consistent with this period for the following reasons:
  The site’s time frame: it was first occupied in 530, and very few urban centres were established in the 6th century, particularly in the Balkans.
  Its geographical position : it is in the Dacia Mediterranea province but close to the border of Dardania not far from Naissus, which corresponds perfectly to the location according to written sources.

  Its location compared to the main transportation routes: it was not located along the Morava-Vardar corridor, on the road further west linking Naissus to Scupi (Skopje) via Hammeum (Prokuplje) and Justiniana Secunda (Ulpiana), or on any significant side road. It would therefore be hard to understand the foundation of a new town at this location unless there was a very particular reason, such as the desire of a monarch to honour the town of his birth.

Historical background

In any case, the circumstances of Caricin Grad’s foundation are quite clear: it was at a time when Justinian, following a series of victories by his generals in conflicts with the Bulgars and the Slavs, may have believed that normality had just about been restored to the Balkans. He therefore set out to reorganise the region and increase fortifications to further his war effort that was aimed at re-conquering the west. We know that disillusion followed quickly afterwards, with a series of devastating raids from 540 onwards, and the submission of Slavic masses under the Avars from the end of Justinian’s rule. A major part of CaricinGrad’s lifecycle therefore corresponds to the period during which the Slavs, under the Avars, increased razzias south of the Danube and subsequently set up there permanently - first, it seems, in Macedonia and Greece, and then in the limes region. Caricin Grad was located in the last region to fall, with Byzantine administration being successfully maintained in the heart of the Diocese of Dacia, i.e. the region around Naissus (Niš) and Serdica (Sofia), until it fell in around 614-615.

Topography

The Caricin Grad region is a region of medium-sized hills rising above the Leskovac basin to the east and separated from the Kosovo plain in the west by a series of mountains (Vidojevica, Radan and Majdan). The city itself is built on the site of a fortified promontory at the southern tip of a narrow plateau delineated by the steep-sided valleys of two small rivers - the Svinjarica to the west and the Caricina to the east - which flow into the Pusta Reka, a left-bank tributary of the South Morava River.

Findings obtained up to 1978

^{Updated on 10.22.08}