The Location of 6th Century Βιμινάκιον. Status quaestionis and Hypotheses

Abstract

During the 6th century, the city of Viminacium was restored thanks to the return of the imperial authority in the province of Moesia Prima, after the great crisis of the 5th century. The settlement had been already mentioned as a πόλις by Procopius, Hierocles and Theophylact Simocatta, but none of these sources provide detailed descriptions nor its precise location. Theophylact also defined the city as a νῆσος, when recalling the military events that took place some years after after the Avar attack of 584. The current knowledge of the topography of the site allows the word νῆσος to raise even more questions about the possible location of the settlement during the 6th century. It has been proposed that the settlement was not reconstructed over the old Roman town, since the original settlement was not established on a river island or peninsula after all. By providing a careful analysis of the literary and archaeological data gathered on the site, and by comparing them to historical references to similar settlements, we will explore the possibility tthat the 6th century Viminacium developped in the vicinity of the Roman colonia.