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. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Ural Mountains, Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains at . The ...

mentioned by Roman soldier

Ammianus Marcellinus Ammianus Marcellinus (occasionally anglicised as Ammian) (born , died 400) was a Roman soldier and historian who wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from antiquity (preceding Procopius). His work, known as the ''Res Gestae' ...

(325–391) regarding events in the Gothic War (367–369). In 367, the Roman Emperor

Valens Valens ( grc-gre, Ουάλης, Ouálēs; 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 eastern half o ...

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 G ...

(a Gothic people) north of the

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , ...

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 Călinesc ...

(1972) tried to precisely locate it to the Siriul mountain range that divides

Transylvania Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the ...

from

Wallachia Wallachia or Walachia (; ro, Țara Românească, lit=The Romanian Land' or 'The Romanian Country, ; archaic: ', Romanian Cyrillic alphabet: ) is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Lower Danube and s ...

- the Buzău Mountains. 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 (; grc, Σαρμαται, Sarmatai; Latin: ) were a large confederation of ancient Eastern Iranian equestrian nomadic peoples of classical antiquity who dominated the Pontic steppe from about the 3rd century BC to the 4th ...

tribe ''Serri'' settled north of the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia (country), Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range ...

, mentioned by

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ...

(23–79) in ''

Naturalis Historia The ''Natural History'' ( la, Naturalis historia) is a 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. ...

''. 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 extensivel ...

(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 the most numerous South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history and language. The majority of Serbs live in their ...

". Slovene anthropologist Niko Županič (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 ...

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