SISCIA
(Sisak) Croatia, Yugoslavia.
First
mentioned by Strabo (
7.5.2), the Iron Age settlement
Segestica, on an island at the mouth of the Kupa (Colapis) in the Sava river, preceded a later Celtic settlement
Siscia at the mouth of the Odra in the Kupa river. Being
at the confluence of three rivers, the place “was strongly
protected by the river and with a large ditch encircling
it” (App.
Ill. 22; Dio Cass. 49.37.3-4). In 35 B.C. Octavian captured the town after a thirty-day blockade. The
town was used as a base for a campaign against the
Dacians. In the time of the great Illyrian rebellion in the
winter of A.D. 6, Tiberius reached Siscia and kept it as
the base for his army, which with a strength of ten
legions and seventy auxiliary cohorts, stamped out the
rebellion in A.D. 9. Siscia became the station of the river
fleet against the Dacians, and Vespasian gave to the town
the status of colonia Flavia Siscia. Because of the new
influx of the colonists this status was confirmed by Septimius Severus (colonia Septimia). The town had the
state mint and treasury in the 3d and 4th c. It was the
capital of Pannonia Savia, and from the 3d c. it was a
bishop's seat (St. Quirinus). In 530 Ioannes from Siscia
attended a provincial synod at Salona. Since the modern
town is built over the ancient one, it has not been possible
to establish its exact size. Every excavation in the town
encounters ancient walls and constructions and often inscriptions and other monuments are found in a secondary
use in these walls. Bath buildings near the Kupa river
have been discovered. The bed of this river has yielded
many important finds of arms, metal ware, and small
bronze statuary from the numerous workshops. Tiles
stamped SISC(ia) are also known.
The rich archaeological material is in the Archaeological Museum at Zagreb and in the City Museum at Sisak.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
J. Brunšmid, “Kameni spomenici Hrvatskog Narodnog muzeja,”
Vjesnik Hrvatskog arheološkog
društva, NS, 7-12 (1904-12); G. Veith,
Die Feldzüge des
C. Iulius Caesar Octavianus in Illyrien in den J. 35-33
v. Chr. (Schriften der Balkankommission, Antiq. Abt. 8;
1914), 51ff, map 7; V. Hoffiller & B. Saria,
Antike Inschriften aus Jugoslawien (1938) 237-68.
M. ZANINOVIĆ
