Serdica

SE´RDICA or SA´RDICA(Σαρδική, Ptol. 3.11.12) (the first of these forms is the more usual with the Romans, the latter with the Greeks), a considerable town of Upper Moesia, which in earlier times was regarded as belonging to Thrace (Ptol. l. c.), but which in the third century was attributed to Dacia Inferior, and made its capital. (Theodore Hist. Eccl. 2.4.) It lay in a fruitful plain, at the spot where the sources of the Oescus united, and on the high-road from Naissus to Philippopolis, between Meldia and Burburaca. ( Itin. Ant. p. 135; Itin. Hierosol. p. 567.) From the time of Aurelian it bore on its coins the surname of Ulpia; probably because, when Dacia was relinquished, the name of that Dacian town was transferred to it, and its inhabitants, perhaps, located there. The emperor Maximian was born in its neighbourhood. (Eutrop. 9.14, 22.) It was destroyed by Attila (Priscus, de Legat. p. 49), but shortly afterwards restored. In the middle ages it occurs under the name of Triaditza (Τριάδιτζα, Niceph. Chron. Ann. Is. Angeli, 3. p. 214; Aposp. Geogr. in Hudson, 4. p. 43), which was perhaps its original Thracian appellation, and which is still retained in the dialect of the inhabitants. (See Wesseling, ad Itin. Ant. l. c. ) Its extensive ruins lie to the S. of Sophia. (Comp. Procop. de Aed. iv. 50. p. 267, 4. p. 282; Hierocl. p. 654; Ammian. 31.16; Gruter, Inscr. p. 540. 2; Orelli, nos. 3548, 5013.) The Geogr. Rav. (4.7) incorrectly writes the name Sertica, since it was derived from the Thracian tribe of the Serdi. It is called by Athanasius ( Apol. contra Arianos, p. 154) Σαρδῶν πόλις.
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