Tauresium (

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

: ''Tauresium'';

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

''Ταυρήσιον''; ), today known as Gradište (), is an archaeological site in

North Macedonia North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe. It shares land borders with Greece to the south, Albania to the west, Bulgaria to the east, Kosovo to the northwest and Serbia to the n ...

, near the village of Taor. Tauresium is the birthplace of Byzantine Emperor

Justinian I Justinian I (, ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 527 to 565. His reign was marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovatio imperii'', or "restoration of the Empire". This ambition was ...

(ca. 482) and King

Theodahad Theodahad, also known as Thiudahad (; 480 – December 536), initially ruled the Ostrogothic Kingdom jointly with his cousin Amalasuintha. She elevated him to co-monarch in late 534, following the death of her son, King Athalaric, likely see ...

of the

Ostrogoths The Ostrogoths () were a Roman-era Germanic peoples, Germanic people. In the 5th century, they followed the Visigoths in creating one of the two great Goths, Gothic kingdoms within the Western Roman Empire, drawing upon the large Gothic populatio ...

(480).

Location and general characteristics

Tauresium is located in

Zelenikovo Municipality Zelenikovo Municipality () is a municipality in the central part of North Macedonia. The municipal seat is located in the village Zelenikovo. The municipality is located in the Skopje Statistical Region. Geography The municipality borders Stud ...

, near the village Taor, some southeast of Skopje. The site was discovered by British archaeologist

Arthur Evans Sir Arthur John Evans (8 July 1851 – 11 July 1941) was a British archaeologist and pioneer in the study of Aegean civilization in the Bronze Age. The first excavations at the Minoan palace of Knossos on the List of islands of Greece, Gree ...

in the late 19th century. According to

Justinian Justinian I (, ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 527 to 565. His reign was marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovatio imperii'', or "restoration of the Empire". This ambition was ...

's biographer

Procopius Procopius of Caesarea (; ''Prokópios ho Kaisareús''; ; – 565) was a prominent Late antiquity, late antique Byzantine Greeks, Greek scholar and historian from Caesarea Maritima. Accompanying the Roman general Belisarius in Justinian I, Empe ...

, the Emperor was born in Tauresium in 482, more precisely in the castle of Bederiana, which is near the modern city of

Niš Niš (; sr-Cyrl, Ниш, ; names of European cities in different languages (M–P)#N, names in other languages), less often spelled in English as Nish, is the list of cities in Serbia, third largest city in Serbia and the administrative cente ...

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

. In the book '' De aedificiis'',

states: The similarity in the names of Tauresium and Barderia as Taor () and Bader () was brought to attention by

Antun Mihanović Antun Mihanović (10 June 1796 – 14 November 1861) was a Croatian poet and lyricist, most famous for writing the national anthem of Croatia, which was put to music by Josip Runjanin and adopted in 1891. Klanjec, his birthplace, holds a monument ...

, the First Austrian Konzul 1836–1858 and proposed to the writer Hun, who stopped on his journey to investigate the location, which is noted in the book . The stories from the local peasants and badly damaged

Cyrillic script The Cyrillic script ( ) is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic languages, Slavic, Turkic languages, Turkic, Mongolic languages, Mongolic, Uralic languages, Uralic, C ...

were not sufficient to prove the theory initially, but later in the Monastery of St. John in Veles, Cyrillic writings were presented to him after which he concluded that this was the same Byzantine City of Tauresium, birthplace of

, who laid the foundation for The First Golden Age of The Byzantine Empire. According to another study, Tauresium was located near the modern city of

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

. Tauresium and the castle Baderiana were destroyed in an earthquake in 518; the epicenter of the earthquake was in the nearby city of Skupi. As a gesture of gratitude to his birthplace, Justinian I rebuilt the city. According to the excavations that have been done so far, it is estimated that the oldest parts of Tauresium date from the 4th century, and this oldest part is a castle with four towers known as ''Tetrapirgia''. Regarding Baderiana, Procopius states that it "is a settled castle with oddments from the 4th to 6th century". ''Baderiana'' or the modern Bader is located 6 km east of Tauresium and Taor.

References

External links

tauresium.info
- web page dedicated to Tauresium. {{Skopje Archaeological sites in North Macedonia Former populated places in the Balkans Justinian I Zelenikovo Municipality