SITE ARCHÉOLOGIQUE DE SCUPI

This site (Археолошки Локалитет Скупи/Arheološki Lokalitet Skupi) contains the remains of the Roman city of Colonia Flavia Scupinorum, founded in the ^1st century AD, and better known as Scupi. Destroyed in 518 by an earthquake, it was rediscovered in 1926 by the Serbian archaeologist Radoslav Grujić (1878-1955) and is still being excavated jointly by Italian and Macedonian archaeologists. The visit is a bit disappointing. Already, apart from a large theater, the ruins are not very "talking". Moreover, there are no precise schedules (it is even sometimes closed without reason several days in a row) and the rare explanatory panels are frequently vandalized. Nevertheless, it is an important place. For Scupi was the only city in the territory of present-day North Macedonia to benefit from the title of "colony": the equivalent of a "Rome in miniature" with (free) inhabitants having Roman citizenship and institutions comparable to those of the capital. The site itself was continuously occupied from the ^12th century B.C.

Hill of the Rabbit and Pudic Venus. Scupi is located very close to the confluence of the Vardar and the Lepenec River (800 m to the southwest), under the hill of Zajčev, which rises to 300 m above sea level. It was on this "rabbit hill" (Zajčev Rid) that Roman soldiers established in the ^2nd century BC a castrum, a fortified camp that then dominated a city belonging to the Dardanians, allies of Rome in the conquest of the region. During the reign of Emperor Domitian (81-96), Scupi was given the title of colony. Veterans of various legions came to settle there and a typical Roman city plan was adopted. On the way to the theater on the hill, we pass along the remains of a small residential complex, a building with an arch, a horreum (warehouse) and a public bath. It is in these baths that a superb marble statue of Venus "modest" of the ^2nd century was unearthed in 2008, today exposed in the museum of the City of Skopje. The path continues along a section of street, an early Christian basilica of the ^4th century and a villa, before leading to the impressive ^2nd century theater. This one could accommodate up to 9,000 spectators. But unlike the one in Stobi, in Povardaria, there is no indication that it was used for gladiatorial combat.