Margum (city)

Margum was an ancient Roman and early medieval Byzantine fortified city, now an archeological site situated in Dubravica, near the present-day Požarevac (Serbia). Located near the confluence of Great Morava and Danube, ancient Margum got its name from the Latin name of river Margus (Great Morava), while the later medieval city, renewed on the same site in the 9th century, got its name Morava or Moravski from the Slavic name for the same river. Before the Roman conquest in the first century BC, the area was inhabited by Triballi, Scordisci and other tribes. Roman Margum initially belonged to Moesia Superior, and later to Moesia Prima. It became an important stronghold on the Moesian Limes, and was located near Viminacium, the provincial capital. In 435, the city of Margus, under the Eastern Roman Empire, was the site of a treaty between the Byzantine Empire and the Hun leaders Attila and Bleda. One pretext for the Hun invasion of the Eastern Roman Empire in 442 was that the Bishop of Margus had crossed the Danube to ransack and desecrate the royal Hun graves on the north bank of the Danube. When the Romans discussed handing over the Bishop, he slipped away and betrayed the city to the Huns, who then sacked the city and went on to invade as far as the gates of Constantinople itself.