Montes Serrorum (in Latin; "mountain of the Serri") is a mountain somewhere in the

Carpathians The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe and Southeast Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains ...

mentioned by Roman soldier

Ammianus Marcellinus Ammianus Marcellinus, occasionally anglicized as Ammian ( Greek: Αμμιανός Μαρκελλίνος; born , died 400), was a Greek and Roman soldier and historian who wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from antiquit ...

(325–391) regarding events in the

Gothic War (367–369) The Gothic Wars were a long series of conflicts between the Goths and the Roman Empire between the years 249 and 554. The main wars are detailed below. History Crisis of the Third Century During the Crisis of the Third Century, Goths under ...

. In 367, the Roman Emperor

Valens Valens (; ; 328 – 9 August 378) was Roman emperor from 364 to 378. Following a largely unremarkable military career, he was named co-emperor by his elder brother Valentinian I, who gave him the Byzantine Empire, eastern half of the Roman Em ...

attacked the

Thervingi The Thervingi, Tervingi, or Teruingi (sometimes pluralised Tervings or Thervings) were a Gothic people of the plains north of the Lower Danube and west of the Dniester River in the 3rd and the 4th centuries. They had close contacts with the Gre ...

(a Gothic people) north of the

Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...

river. However, he was unable to hit them directly, because apparently, the bulk of the Goths retreated to the ''Montes Serrorum''. Marcellinus says that Valens could not find anyone to fight with (''nullum inveniret quem superare poterat vel terrere'') and even implies that all of them fled, horror-struck, to the mountains (''omnes formidine perciti... montes petivere Serrorum''). It was described as only accessible to those "exceedingly" familiar with the surroundings, thus the Roman troops were unable to achieve anything.

Dispute

The mountain was probably located in the South-eastern Carpathians.

Matei Cazacu Matei is a Romanian name. It is equivalent to the English name Matthew. As a given name * Matei Balș, Romanian bacteriologist *Matei Basarab, Wallachian Voivode between 1632 and 1654 *Matei Boilă, Romanian politician and priest *Matei Călines ...

(1972) tried to precisely locate it to the

Siriu Siriu is a commune in Buzău County, Muntenia, Romania, in the valley of the river Buzău. It is composed of five villages: Cașoca, Colțu Pietrii, Gura Siriului, Lunca Jariștei (the commune centre), and Mușcelușa. Geography Location Siriu ...

l mountain range that divides

Transylvania Transylvania ( or ; ; or ; Transylvanian Saxon dialect, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Siweberjen'') is a List of historical regions of Central Europe, historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and ...

from

Wallachia Wallachia or Walachia (; ; : , : ) is a historical and geographical region of modern-day Romania. It is situated north of the Lower Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians. Wallachia was traditionally divided into two sections, Munteni ...

- the

Buzău Mountains The Buzău Mountains are a set of six mountains ranges in Romania which are part of the Curvature Carpathians region of the Outer Eastern Carpathians. These six mountain ranges are as follows: * * * * * *. The Penteleu and Ivănețu Massifs are ...

. Wanke (1990) was sceptical to Cazacu's attempt. There were attempts to etymologically derive ''Siriu'' from Romanian, Hungarian and Turkish language. The toponym has been connected to the

Sarmatian The Sarmatians (; ; Latin: ) were a large confederation of Ancient Iranian peoples, ancient Iranian Eurasian nomads, equestrian nomadic peoples who dominated the Pontic–Caspian steppe, Pontic steppe from about the 5th century BCE to the 4t ...

tribe ''Serri'' settled north of the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...

, mentioned by

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...

(23–79) in ''

Naturalis Historia The ''Natural History'' () is a Latin work by Pliny the Elder. The largest single work to have survived from the Roman Empire to the modern day, the ''Natural History'' compiles information gleaned from other ancient authors. Despite the work' ...

''. Other considered an existence of another same-named Dacian tribe because were recorded Thracian words with the same root. Although by some it seems unlikely, the majority of scholars deem the Sarmatian tribal connection as the most credible explanation because it is also similar to other ancient names of the Carpathians, ''Sarmatian Mountains'' and ''Alpes Bastarnicae'', the fact Marcellinus reported about the ''Caucaland'' referring to the Carpathians, making ''Montes Serrorum'' a made-up geographical name.

Konstantin Jireček Konstantin Josef Jireček (24 July 1854 10 January 1918) was an Austro-Hungarian Czech historian, politician, diplomat, and Slavist. He was the founder of Bohemian Balkanology (or Balkan Studies) and Byzantine studies, and wrote extensively on ...

(1854–1918) also connected the toponym with Pliny's ''Serri'', but according to him they were "Caucasian

Serbs The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Southeastern Europe who share a common Serbian Cultural heritage, ancestry, Culture of Serbia, culture, History of Serbia, history, and Serbian lan ...

". Slovene anthropologist

Niko Županič Niko Županič ( Griblje, 1 December 1876 – Ljubljana, 11 September 1961) was a professor of ethnology at the University of Ljubljana. Upon outbreak of the World War I, he moved to Niš, Serbia and joined the censorship office of the Royal Ser ...

(1876–1961) treated the toponym as evidence of "Serb presence in

Dacia Dacia (, ; ) was the land inhabited by the Dacians, its core in Transylvania, stretching to the Danube in the south, the Black Sea in the east, and the Tisza in the west. The Carpathian Mountains were located in the middle of Dacia. It thus ro ...

", and this view was supported by Ivo Vukcevich (2001), but the fringe theory in turn was discredited by

Florin Curta Biography Curta works in the field of Balkans history and is a professor of medieval history and archaeology at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. Curta's first book, '' The Making of the Slavs: History and Archaeology of the L ...

for being based on a "dubious etymology". The toponym ''Montes Serrorum'' in another version of the manuscript is written as ''Montes Succorum'', however, although the root "''suc-''" is reported in several toponyms of the time in the region, the form is a result of writing error.

References

;Sources * *

Dispute

References

Further reading