Wiseman 1984a

Wiseman, James. 1984. "The City in Macedonia Secunda," in Villes et Peuplemenf dans l'lllyricum protobyzantin (Ecole franyaise de Rome) 289-314.

COLLECTION DE L'ECOLE FRAN

I

JAMES R. WISEMAN

THE CITY IN MACEDONIA SECUNDA

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Hierocles names 32 cities in Macedonia Prima, the governor of which was of consular rank; he lists only 8 cities in Macedonia Secunda, a much smaller province to the north, governed by a llYE/.HOV. The latter list, which dates to the late V or early VI century after Christ, includes Stoloi (for which we may understand Stoboi = Stobi), Argos, Eustralon, Pelagonia, Bargala, Kelainidion, Armonia, and Zapara l. Historical , epigraphical, and topographical research over the past century has resulted in reasonably clear delimitation of the two Macedonias, so that we may view Macedonia Secunda as occupying the land along the middle Vardar, i.e., much of the heartland of ancient Paeonia, and stretching from the Bregalnica river on the northeast (near modern Stip) to the mid-Crna river in the southwest, in the Pelagonian plain south of Prilep (fig. 1)2.

HIEROCLES, Synecdemus 7-8 (ed. Wesseling, p.391). The lists are evidently incomplete, since other towns are known, although it is possible that the missing names are of communities with a lower status than that of a polis. Hierocles seems to have composed the Synecdemus early in the reign of Justinian, but to have used as a basic document, which he augmented, a work on provincial organization dating to the reign of Theodosius II (A.D. 408-450); see Fanula PAPAZOGLU, Makedonski Gradovi u Rimsko Doha , Skopje, 1957, p.25-26 (hereafter, PAPAZOGLU, Gradovi) and A. H. M. JONES, Cilies of Ihe Easlern Roman Provinces, 2nd edn., Oxford , 1971 , p. 515.

2 PAPAZOGLU, Gradovi, p. 93. Heraclea Lyncestis on the Crna river near modern Bitola was a city of Macedonia Prima. On the confusion of Heraclea with Pelagonia, a city of Macedonia Secunda, see Fanula PAPAZOGLU, Heraclee des Lynces/es a la lumiere des lexles lilleraires el epigraphiques, in Heraclee, I, Bitola, 1961, p . 32. Heraclea is erroneously shown as part of Macedonia Secunda on the map by P. Koledarov published in the back of the English edition of Velizan VELKOV, eilies in Thrace and Dacia in Lale AnliquiIy , 2nd edn., Hakkert, Amsterdam, 1977.

290 JAMES R. WISEMAN

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Macedonia Secunda seems to have occupied much the same region as Macedonia Salutaris, a province that was created by an earlier partition of Macedonia, probably in the late IV century. The province is named in the Notitia Dignitatum, which was probably composed in the early V century3. Theodore Mommsen long ago suggested ca. 386 as a

J Or. I, p. 5, 14. Different parts of the No/ilia were composed at different times . Sections dealing with the Eastern Roman Empire were probably written in the twenties

291 THE CITY IN MACEDONIA SECUNDA

likely date for the partition of Macedonia into two provinces, since other similarly named districts were created at that time in the eastern provinces 4 This approximate date is still appealing to me, since the partition could have provided the occasion for the visit to the new province by the Emperor Theodosius, who issued two edicts while at Stobi in 388 5 .

None of the preserved literature or 'inscriptions of the V century refers specifically either to Macedonia Salutaris or Secunda before Hierocles. For this reason, Fanula Papazoglu, who has informed us on so much about Macedonia in Roman Times, has suggested that the two Macedonias may have been reunited by early in the V century (perhaps even by 402) and partitioned again only late in that century6. The paucity of historical documents, including inscriptions, that deal with the provincial administration of eastern Illyricum in this period, and the limited amount of excavation that has been conducted seem to me to make the hypothesis not an especially compelling argumentum ex silentio. It is at least conceivable that Macedonia Secunda was a moreor-less immediate successor to Macedonia Salutaris, whether in the late IV or in the course of the V century.

Professor Papazoglu's hypothesis that Macedonia Secunda ceased to exist before the middle of the 6th century seems to me to have somewhat more to commend itself. Not only does Procopius fail to mention it in a discussion of the region in de aedificiis iv. 4, but the founding of Justiniana Prima as a new metropolis and seat of the archbishop has a direct bearing on the administration in the prefecture of Illyricum. To be specific, Macedonia Secunda is one of several provinces subject to the authority of Justiniana Prima in 535 A.D., but is not included in the same kind of lis t in 545 7

of the V century and reflect the organization of the late IV century. See VELKOV, op. cit. in note 2, p. 18; Adolf LiPPOLD, s. v. Nolilia Dignilalum, in Der Kleine Pauly, IV, Munich, 1972, p. 166-167. Professor Pamela Berger of Boston College, who has made an intensive study of the NOlilia, also dates the composition to the early V century; personal communication, June, 1982.

4 Th. MOMMSEN, Verzeichniss der romischen Provinzen aufgeselzl urn 297, in Gesammelle Schriflen, V, Berlin, 1908, p. 580.

S Codex Theodosianus 16. 4. 2, 16. 5. IS. 6 PAPAZOGLU, Gradovi, p. 91-92. 7 JUSTINIAN Nov. xi; cxxxi, cap. iii; cf. PAPAZOGLU, Gradovi, p. 94. On the other hand,

one of the bishops attending the Council of Constantinople in 553 was Benignus episcopus

292 JAMES R . WISEMAN

And lustiniana Prima, I believe, has been correctly identified as the site at Caricin Grad, a village ca. 30 km to the southwest of Leskovac in southern Serbia 8. The site has been the object of several archaeological investigations in this century, including important recent work there by Vladimir Kondic, Vladislav Popovic, Noel Duval, and 1. M. Spieser, and their colleagues 9 .

The towns of Macedonia Secunda mentioned by Hierocles have been identified, at least as to the general region, along with several other towns known from other sources, such as, for example, Euristos and Antigoneia from the Tabula Peutingeriana 10. Modern archaeological excavations, however, have been conducted only at two of the towns: Bargala lion the Bregalnica river and Stobi at the confluence of the Erigon and the Axios, the modern Crna and Vardar (fig. 2). But it is only at the latter site, Stobi, that excavations have been extensive enough to inform us about the character of the Late Antique town, and intensive enough to make possible some comparisons with the earlier periods of occupation.

We would appear to be fortunate that , if only one of the cities of Macedonia Secunda has been the object of long-term archaeological investigation, the city should be Stobi. I say this for a number of reasons. It is a city of considerable antiquity: Livy speaks of it as an old town of Paeonia 12, and excavations have confirmed occupation from the III, perhaps even IV century B.C., until the late VI century after Christ. We are able, therefore, to trace at Stobi the evolution of urban life over a period of almost a thousand years. We know also that it was a city of major importance throughout the period of Roman domi-

Heracleotanae civitatis quae est primae Macedoniae: in MANSI, ix 173 C, 190 E, 194 B, 197 A.B., 262 B, 389 B. It might be argued that a Macedonia Prima implies at least a Mace donia Secunda.

81. WISEMAN, s. v. Justiniana Prima (CariCin Grad) Yugoslavia, in Richard Stillwell , ed., The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, Princeton, 1976, p. 428-429.

9 Vladimir KONDIC and Vladislav POPOVIC, CariCin Grad, Beograd, 1977; Djordje MANOZISSI, CariCin Grad; JU5tiniana Prima, Leskovac, 1979.

10 PAPAZOGLU, Gradovi , p.95, 199-211 , 231-248. On Euristos, see also 1. MIKULCIC, Topografija na Eu{da)rist, in Macedoniae Acta Archaeologica, 1, 1975, p. 173-197.

I t Blaga ALEKSOVA and Cyril MANGO, Bargala.' a Preliminary Report, in Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 25 , 1971, p. 265-281; ALEKSOVA, Bargala .' Arheolos'1


Fig. 2 - View of Stobi from the east. The river in the distance is the Vardar; the trees in the foreground mark the line of the Crna river. The modern roof protects the baptistery and the deep excavation area below the south aisle of the Episcopal Basilica. The basilica itself is on an artificial terrace that covers in part the outer wall of the theater.

nation: it was the salt emporium of the third region when Macedonia was divided into four parts after the Roman victory in 168 B.C. 13; it was a municipium from the early years of the empire, probably even

13 LIVY xlv. 29.13.


from the reign of Augustus 14; it minted its own coins from the time of the Flavians to Caracalla or Elagabalus 15; and bishops of Stobi attended important ecclesiastical congresses, beginning with the Council of Nicaea in 325 and ending with the Trullanum Synod in 69216. We may with some confidence accept Stobi as the capital both of Macedonia Salutaris and of its successor, Macedonia Secunda.

We are also fortunate that stobi, especially the town of Late Antiquity, is relatively well preserved. The good preservation is in part a result of the fact that there was no urban occupation of the site after its destruction in the late VI century, in part a result of fairly rapid aeolic and fluvial accumulations over the ancient site. There were post-destruction depredations at stobi, but they were localized and seem to have occurred chiefly during the early Slavic period, perhaps again on a minor scale in the XI century, and during the First World War.

Excavations have been conducted at Stobi by several teams of scholars during the 20th century: from the mid 1920s until the outbreak of World War Two, by the National Museum of Beograd; shortterm excavations in the 1950s by the University of Cyril and Methodius in Skopje; and by the Conservation Institute of Macedonia in the 1960s 17. Most recently, a joint Yugoslav-American team has worked at Stobi since 1970 under the direction of Djordje Mano-Zissi, Blaga Aleksova, and the author of this paper. The staff of the latter project have produced a number of preliminary articles 18 and reports, as well as three volumes of special studies entitled Studies in the Antiquities of Stobi. Volume 1 and 2 were published in Beograd in 1973 and 1975; volume 3 was published in Skopje in 1981. The same staff are now engaged in the preparation of a second series of volumes that will con

14 James WISEMAN, Stobi: a Guide 10 the Excavations, Beograd, 1973, p. 14-15; d. Fanula PAPAZOGLU, Quelques aspects de I'hiSlOire de la province de Macedoine, in ANRW, II, 7. 1,1979, p. 359-36l.

15 Slobodan DUSANIC, A Foundation-Type on the Coinage of the Municipium SlObi, in RBN, 1l3, 1967, p. 11-29.

16 The bishops and councils are identified and the ancient sources collected in James WISEMAN, Gods, War and Plague in the Time of the AnlOnines, in James Wiseman, ed., Studies in the Antiquities of SlObi, I, Beograd, 1973, p. 143-144.

17 For a brief history of the excavations see WISEMAN, op. cit. in note 14, p. 21-22. 18 The most recent preliminary report is James WISEMAN, Stobi in Yugoslavian Mace

donia: Archaeological Excavations and Research, 1977-78, in Journal of Field Archaeology, 5, 1978, p. 391-429. Earlier reports are cited in footnote I of the same article.


tain the final results of the 12-year project. The comments that follow are based largely on information resulting from the investigations of that joint project, but also draw upon the work of the earlier excavations.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE LATE ANTIQUE CITY

At Stobi the most dramatic manifestations of the conversion to what we might call the Late Antique city occur within the span of perhaps two generations at the end of the IV and continuing into the early V century. It is tempting to assign as the starting date for this change the year 388 when the Emperor Theodosius visited the city, for a number of events occurred about that time. The creation of the province of Macedonia Salutaris, possibly in 386, has already been mentioned. The visit by Theodosius to Stobi may be taken as another piece of evidence pointing to the elevation of the city to the rank of provincial capital. Recent excavation has also demonstrated that the earliest church (figs. 3-4) yet found at Stobi - indeed, the earliest well-preserved church in the Balkans - was built in the last quarter of the IV century19. Theodosius must have visited the church early in its existence, and could conceivably have been present for its dedication.

Before the end of the IV century the theater (fig. 5), which also served as an arena and as a place of civic assembly, and in whose shadow the new church was built, was closed in accordance with a decree of the same Theodosius. Trash then began to accumulate in its parodoi and the rains washed layers of earth into its untended orchestra. By the early V century houses were being raised above the deposits that covered the lower parts of the theater, while the marble seats of the cavea were dragged away for reuse in a variety of buildings20.

19 Ibid., p.397-407. Limited excavation and continued study of the material since 1978 have resulted in contextual evidence, including ceramics, suggesting a construction date in the last quarter of the IV century. Numismatic evidence from below the plaster floor of the south aisle are three well-preserved coins, numbers 79-12 (Constantius 1, 341346),7913 (Constans I, 335-337), and 79-151 (Diocietian, 296-305); and one illegible coin dating 360-370 A.D. Another coin was found in the concrete that had once been part of a wall of this early building and was indentified as a salus rei publicae issue, dating to 383-395 A.D. It cannot be demonstrated at this time, however, that the debris is from a wall belonging to the original construction. Coin identifications were by Alan Walker.

20 See esp. Elizabeth GEBHARD, The Theater at Stobi: a Summary, in Blaga Aleksova and James Wiseman, eds., Studies in the Antiquities of Stobi, III, Skopje, 1981, p. 13-19.


Fig. 3 - Part of the IV century church below the Episcopal Basilica. The view from the south shows the north wall, which is covered with a colorful fresco; the plaster floor of the north aisle; the place of the easternmost column of the north stylobate; mosaic pavements in the presbyterium (right) and nave (left), separated by the foundation for the chancel screen ; and impressions in the mortar for an opus sectile floor in the

presbyterium.

Fig. 4 - Part of the IV century church (see fig. 3). The view from the north shows a portion of the floor of the presbyterium (left) and nave; the north aisle is in the foreground. The high wall is the foundation for the south stylobate of the Episcopal Basilica, the ambo of which is visible at upper right. See also

fig. 12.

It is tempting also to assign to the visit of Theodosius at least part of the impetus for another event that may have had social implications as profound as the closing of the theater. I refer to the intentional dismantling in the early V century of the synagogue, and the construc


Fig. 5 - Aerial view of the theater and eastern end of the Episcopal Basilica. The apse rests in part on the outer wall of the theater. West is at the top of the photograph which

was taken from a tethered balloon by Julian and Eunice Whittlesey in 1974.

tion above it of a Christian church (the Central Basilica) (fig. 6). The synagogue (fig. 7) that was replaced by the church had been the IV century successor of the synagogue of Polycharmos (fig. 8), which may itself have been an expansion of a I century foundation. The IV century synagogue included not only the great hall and entrance court, later covered by the church, but also a large, contiguous residential structure that was evidently later used by the clergy of the church.

This transferral in the center of the city of property sacred to the Jews of Stobi for some three and a half centuries must have been accompanied by severe disruption, possibly even expulsion, of the Jewish community. It should be noted here that the two edicts issued


Fig. 6 - Aerial view of the Central Basilica (right) and the contiguous residence for the clergy. The top of the photo is to the southwest. The north wall of the IV century synagogue is visible below the north aisle of the church. The mosaic shown in fig. 7 was the floor pavement in the great hall that extended from the north wall to the wall visible just north of the south stylobate of the church. The foundation of the bema for the torah shrine is visible near the center, against the east wall of the synagogue. Photograph

(1974) by Julian and Eunice Whittlesey.


Fig. 7 - Floor mosaic from the great hall of the IV century synagogue; see fig. 6.


Fig. 8 - Fragments of the painted plaster from the south wall of the earlier (II-III century) synagogue. The repeated legend reads I1oAuxapJ.l0

THE CITY IN MACEDONIA SECUNDA 301

at Stobi by Theodosius were to bring about constraints on religious discussion and to impose various sanctions on heretics 21 .

Another major change in the appearance of the city, and again one that reflects a major change in the lives of the inhabitants, was the abandonment of a strip of land nearly 100 m wide all along the left bank of the Erigon (fig. 9). The city wall along the river, a large palatial structure with elaborate wall decoration, and a still larger building (probably a bath) with a mosaic-paved courtyard and a room that once had arched niches adorned with bronze and marble statuary, were among the structures abandoned to the frequent floods of the Erigon. A new city wall (fig. 10), which was probably expected to serve also as

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21 For recent discussions of the synagogues and the church that succeded them, see Dean L. MOE, The Cross and the Menorah , in Archaeology, 30, 1977, p. 148-157, and William POEHLMAN, The Polycharmos Inscription and Synagogue I at Stobi, in Aleksova and Wiseman, eds., op. cit. in note 20, p. 235-246.

20


Fig. 10 - Aerial view of a part of the inner city wall, which rests here on the mosaic pavement of the courtyard of a large building, probably a bath.

a flood dike, was built in the early V century well back from the bank of the uncontrollable river, and its lower courses lay directly on the walls and mosaic floors of buildings that clearly were of great consequence during the early centuries of the empire. The later wall may very well cross the forum of the early Roman city22.

22 The preliminary reports of excavations in this part of the ancient city are James WISEMAN and Djordje MANO-ZISSI, Excavations at Stobi, 1973-1974, in Journal of Field Archaeology, 1, 1974, p. 121-128, and Vojislav SANEV and Sado SAR:lOSKI, Iskopavanja na Vnatresniot Bedem vo Stobi, 1972-1974 Godina, in Aleksova and Wiseman, eds., op. cit. in note 20, p. 229-234.


THE CHARACTER OF THE CITY IN LATE ANTIQUITY

Having reviewed the major changes in the city at the beginning of its conversion into a Late Antique town, we might now turn to a consideration of its appearance in the early VI century (fig . 11).

There were a number of large, palatial residences on the mid-slope of the ridge on which much of the later city lay. These residences possessed elaborate courtyards with decorated fountains; floors with pavements of mosaic or opus sectile; and walls covered with frescoes and occasionally mosaics.

More modest residences were located higher on the slope ; on top of the ruins of the theater; along the line of the new eastern city wall; and in the area outside the walls, at least in the vicinity of the Porta Heraclea.

Small shops and factories were scattered among the more modest residences; along the street leading to the Porta Heraclea; probably along other streets further upslope, and even surrounding one of the larger residential complexes (fig. 11, No. 11). Only a few secular, public structures have been identified; two baths; a public fountain, and a small open area that might barely qualify as a plateia.

The fountains and the bath were supplied by water pipes leading from conduits that ran from south to north below the streets . Structures to the east of each street on the ridge inevitably lay at a level lower than both the water conduit and the street pavement23

One noteworthy feature of the streets is that they are not straight, but have angles and jogs that provided a series of views for the pedestrian instead of one long vista (fig. 12). Only one of the streets so far excavated (the Via Sacra) was lined with arcades, but all of them were paved.

Christian churches dominated the city's architecture. The North Basilica (fig. 11, No.2) has a small cruciform baptistery and, like the other basilicas within the walls, has three aisles, a narthex, and an atrium. The Central Basilica, which succeeded the synagogues, also continued in use .

23 Konstantin PETROV, /strai uvanja na Vodovodniot Sistem vo Ranovizantiskiot Stobi, in Godisven Zbornik na Filozofskiot Faku{tet, Skopje, vot. 19, 1967, p. 269-306.


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Fig. 11 - Map of Stobi. 1. Museum; 2. North Basilica; 3. Small Residences; 4. Civil Basilica ; 5. Little Bath; 6. Central Basilica and Synagogues; 7. House of Psalms; 8. Central Fountain; 9. Large Bath; 10. Via Principalis Inferior; 11. House of Peristeria; 12 . Via Theodosia; 13. House of Parthenius; 14. Theodosian Palace; 15. Via Principalis Superior; 16. House of the Fuller; 17. Prison Area; 18. Episcopal Residence; 19. Semicircular Court; 20. Episcopal Basilica; 21. Baptistery; 22. Via Sacra; 23. Porta Heraclea; 24. Theater; 25. Casino; 26. Via Axia; 27. Inner City Wall; 28. Casa Romana; 29. East City Wall and Turkish Bridge; 30. West Cemetery; 31. Cemetery Basilica; 32. Palikura Basilica.

The map was drawn by C. Salit , F . Hemans, and E . Scull and is based on an earlier survey and drawing by Paul Huffman (1971) and David B. Peck (1972) with additions by Charles Ehrhorn (1973) and Hemans (1974).


About the middle of the century the IV century church mentioned earlier was covered over and an artificial terrace 4 m. high was created on which a new Episcopal Basilica was built (fig. 12). This enormous, two-storied basilica would have been the single most dominant architectural feature of the city (fig. 11, No. 20), at least as far as we may determine at present. The building, which was extensively remodelled in the late V or early VI century (fig. 13), had elaborately carved capitals, wall and floor mosaics, wall frescoes, opus sectile, and other decorative architectural elements 24 .

Below the terrace to the north lay the residence of the bishop (fig. 11, No. 18; fig. 12)25. The baptistery, a well-preserved structure with a central piscina, lay south of the terrace (fig. 14) and was reached by a stairway descending from the narthex 26 . Both buildings overlie and incorporate structures that had served similar functions in association with the IV century church. Two, possibly three, other churches lay outside the walls 27.

24 Capitals: see especially Ernst KITZINGER, A Survey of the Early Christian Town of Stobi, in Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 3, 1964, p. 101-107; Ivanka NIKOLAJEVI


Fig. 12 - Aerial view of Episcopal Basilica and its environs. Northwest is at the top. The photographs in figs. 3-4 were taken of the IV century church that was exposed by the trench visible near the east end of the nave between the ambo and the chancel

screen. Photograph in 1978 by J. Wilson Myers and Ellie Myers.

THE DEMISE OF STaB!

The Episcopal Basilica had two main phases, but there were numerous occasions for repair of various elements that suffered some local damage. The mosaic pavements, as might be expected, display many instances of repair. Some of these repairs, especially in the bap

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tistery, were carried out with care so great that their existence was detected only by a tessera~by~tessera study of the mosaic 28 Other repairs were simple cement patches or a careless replacement of most of a decorative register with bricks and cement, as in the south wing of the narthex. The poorer repairs could hardly have preceded the careful ones: why bother to repair with care a mosaic already patched with brick? Such careless patchwork, indeed, probably reflects the decline in prosperity and diminished concern for the ecclesiastical complex that would have attended the decline in stature of the bishop~ ric at Stobi after the foundation of lustiniana Prima. We might note that there were similar undistinguished repairs in the North Basilica.

The hard times that fell upon the church at Stobi were a portent of the immediate future of the city itself. For, not long after the middle

28 Ruth KOLARIK and Momcilo PETROVSKI, Technical Observations on Mosaics at Stobi, in Wiseman, ed., op. cit. in note 26, p. 88-89, figs. 20-21.


Fig. 15 - Mosaic pavement in the baptistery where the mosaic was broken through in antiquity for the removal of a lead pipe.

of the century, the city was largely abandoned and given over to persons who had no regard for the sanctity of the holy places of Stobi. A burial crypt within the terrace wall of the Episcopal Basilica was plundered and the mosaic floor of the baptistery was broken through merely to remove the lead pipe that brought water to the piscina (fig. 15)29. The pillagers may only have passed through the abandoned city, collecting what they wanted of the things left behind by the inhabitants. Their presence might also be represented by the occasional makeshift hovels reported by some of the earlier excavators in various parts of the site, but especially in and about the churches 30.

29 WISEMAN and MANO-ZISSI, 1973, loc. cit. in note 26. 30 See, e.g., Balduin SARIA, S.v. Stobi, in Narodna enciklopedija srpsko-hrvatsko-sloven

aCka, IV, 1922, p. 490.


Additional evidence for the abandonment of Stobi is that windblown dust accumulated in the plundered burial crypt, in the robber's trench for the lead pipe, before the entrance to the baptistery, and even to a depth of 20-40 centimeters over the mosaic pavement of the baptistery and in the piscina 31 A similar condition prevailed in a room contiguous to the Porta Heraclea, and elsewhere. The latest coin found covered by the dust dates to the 5th year of the reign of Justin II, that is, 569-570 32 The coins provide a terminus post quem for the abandonment, or partial abandonment, of Stobi.

We do not know the reason for the abandonment of the city, though two possibilities seem the most likely: plague or threat of invasion. Since we know that Slavic tribes were moving south in the late VI century, the latter is a somewhat more likely cause. The inhabitants of Stobi, or most of them, may have decided to withdraw into the mountains to await the passing of the Slavs, intending to return once the area seemed safe again.

But before the inhabitants could return, the city was destroyed. The widespread nature of the collapse - from small houses atop the ridge (fig. 16), to the baptistery, Episcopal Basilica, and the Porta Heraclea - suggests an earthquake as the agent of destruction. The deep layer of dust in the baptistery protected the mosaic floor from destruction when the roof collapsed and tons of debris from the south side of the basilica tumbled onto the ruins (fig. 17).

The destruction that befell Stobi caught only a few people within the walls: a woman and a child were crushed by a collapsing wall in the area west of the Episcopal Basilica, and a skeleton was found with some gold coins of Justinian in a basement room north of the bishop's residence 33 . But it may be taken as additional evidence of the prior abandonment of the city that the earlier excavators of the city found so few persons trapped in the destruction, and the joint Yugoslav-American Project found none at all.

31 WISEMAN and MANOZISSI, 1973 loco cit. in note 26; see also infra, note 35. J2 Acropolis: see WISEMAN and MANOZISSI, 197/op. cil. in note 26, p. 411. Cf. also

from the baptistery : Coins 71708 (Justin II and Sophia, 565-578) and 71471 (Justin II, 567/ 568).

)) Female and child : Djordje MANOZISSI , lskopavanja u Stobima 1933 i 1934 Godine, in Starinar, 1011, 19351936, p. 158. The skeleton and gold coins were found by Jakov Pavelic: Jow PETROVIC, U Stobima Danas, in Glasnik hrvatskih zemaljskih muzeja u Sarajevo, 1943, p. 477.


Fig. 16 - View of a destroyed residence at the top of the ridge on which much of Stobi was built. The bronze cross in the debris on the threshold had once hung on the wooden door of this entrance. The houses on the ridge were abandoned, then destroyed, in the

late VI century.

There is some evidence for partial reoccupation of Stobi after its destruction, but the occupation was on a very small scale, and was evidently Slavic. Professor Blaga Aleksova, in any case, has recently identified as Slavic several post-destruction burials in and about the North Basilica 34. Some of the huts within or above the ruins of Stobi that were reported by the early excavators could have belonged to that community. A few architectural elements from the baptistery are missing, and may have been removed for reuse not long after the destruction. Part of a dry stone wall was recently excavated above the destruction

34 Blaga ALEKSOVA, Medieval Graves in the North Basilica, in Aleksova and Wiseman, eds., op. cit. in note 20, p.253-261. Professor Aleksova dates the burials to the IX-XII centuries (p. 255).


Fig. 17 - The deep accumulation of wind-blown dust protected the mOsaic floor of the baptistery when the structure collapsed in the late VI century.

debris just southeast of the baptistery. And some of the marble columns of the Episcopal Basilica were sawn for removal and reuse, but, for reasons unknown, were then left behind.

It is clear that the reoccupation was temporary and on a very modest scale. The former inhabitants, or at least the great majority of them, never returned to their homes. The reason, I believe, was that the task of rebuilding seemed greater than the future would recompense. As Robert L. Folk, the geomorphologist on the Stobi staff, has already shown, the region of Stobi had been becoming increasingly xeric since early in our era 35. It was those clima.tic conditions, in fact,

35 Robert L. FOLK, The Geologic Framework of Stobi, in Wiseman, ed ., op. cit. in note 16, p. 51-57; ID., Geologic Urban Hindplanning: an Example from a Hellenistic-Byzantine City, Stobi, Yugoslavian Macedonia, in Environmental Geology, I, 1974, p. 5-22.

THE CITY IN MACEDONIA SECUNDA 313

that were responsible for the eroding banks and devastating floods of the Erigon that led in the early V century to the abandoning of the lower town and the building of the inner city wall on the east above the Erigon. The increasing dryness reached its peak in the late VI and VII centuries when farming in the area of Stobi would have been worthwhile only with the aid of extensive irrigation. Further testimony to the continuation of those conditions may be seen in the fact that layer upon layer of river sand and silt, laid down by the flooding Erigon, built up against and over the inner city wall, so that it was covered for the most part by the time Basil II destroyed a military garrison at Stobi in the XI century36. Indeed, long-time inhabitants of the area have told us that the river flooded almost annually even in this century until a dam was built some 20 km upstream in 1969. On the ridge, the accumulations of dust before and after the destruction of the city provide still other, compelling evidence.

Environmental factors thus seem to have been as influential as cultural changes in the demise, abandonment, and destruction of Stobi. Land too poor to cultivate, an untamed and destructive river, a dry and dusty climate - all combined to discourage further settlement at the confluence of the two rivers where Stobi had existed for almost a millennium.

Boston University James R. WISEMAN

36 Cedrenus, CSHB, 2, p. 709A. Cf. WISEMAN and MANO-ZlSSl, 1972, op. cil. in note 26, p. 417, and 1973, op. cil. in note 26, p. 394, for evidence of activity in the XI century in the upper part of the ruined theater and at the top of the inner city wall, respectively. See also the latter publication, Ill. 5, for a drawing of the riverine deposits that lay against and over the inner city wall.

INTERVENTIONS

Marina Falla Castelfranchi : Desideravo una precisazione circa la datazione del battistero di Stobi, piu

tardo del IV sec. e la funzione liturgica dell'edificio di culto cui e connesso che sono poco chiare. In proposito un preciso confronto nell'area della Macedonia


si pUO lstltuire con il battistero della Santa Sofia di Tessalonica (la fase del V sec.), una costruzione finora ritenuta un ninfeo romano: i confronti riguardano sia l'involucro esterno, a nicchie, sia il tipo di vasca (si tratta in ogni caso di una tipologia assai diffusa nell'area mediterranea). Probabilmente questa battistero costitui uno dei modelli per il battistero di Stobi, che a mio avviso non si puo datare prima della fine del V sec. sulla base della stile dei mosaici pavimentali.

Noel Duval:

A la suite de ['intervention precedente sur Ie baptistere, M. Duval fait remarquer que la typologie du bassin n'est pas reservee aux baptisteres (il faudrait citer aussi par exemple Boppard en Rhenanie) : ce meme type avec niches exterieures et jet d'eau interne se retrouve pour des bassins d'atrium a Chypre, par exemple (Kourion, Highir Trirs).

Documents

Wiseman 1984a