SCUPI
Yugoslavia.
The remains of the ancient
town on the Vardar (ancient Axius) river in a suburban
community ca. 5 km NW of modern Skopje in Macedonia.
The Roman town was founded in the 2d c. B.C. on the
site of a Dardanian settlement. It later became the
Colonia Flavia Aelia Scupi and many veteran legionnaires
were settled there. Scupi was the chief center for romanizing Dardania. Bishops of Scupi are known from the
4th to the 6th c. The city suffered greatly in the earthquake of 518. (Scupi was once thought to have been the
site of Justiniana Prima, now identified with a city discovered near the village of Caričin Grad.)
Excavations have revealed a large but not well-preserved Roman theater and a public bath. An episcopal
basilica nearby, the cemetery basilica, and a large building near the theater have also been excavated. Sections of the city wall have been exposed in recent years and a large cemetery of the Early Roman period has been
excavated.
The Archaeological Museum of Skopje, the largest in
Macedonia, contains finds not only from Scupi but from
numerous other sites, including Stobi and Demir Kapija.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
F. Papazoglu,
Makedonski Gradovi u
Rimsko Doba (1957) 24, 46, 87, 132, 205.
J. WISEMAN
