Scupi
SCUPI (Σκοῦποι, Ptol. 3.9.6, 8.11.5; Hierocl.; Niceph. Bryenn. 4.18; Geog. Rav. 4.15; τὰ Σκόπια, Anna Comn. 9. p. 253; Σκούπιον, Procop. de Aed. 4.4; Orelli, Inscr. 1790: Uschküb), a town which, from its important position at the débouché from the Illyrian into the plains of Paeonia and the Upper Axius, was in all ages the frontier town of Illyricum towards Macedonia. There is no evidence of its ever having been possessed by the kings of Macedonia or Paeonia. Under the Romans it was ascribed to Dardania, as well in the time of Ptolemy as in the fifth century, when it was the capital of the new diocese of Dardania (Marquardt, in Becker's Röm. Alt. iii. pt. 1. p. 110). The Roman road from Stobi to Naissus passed by Scupi, which was thus brought into connection with the great SE. route from Viminacium on the Danube to Byzantium. It was probably seldom under the complete authority of Constantinople, though after the memorable victory in which, under its walls, Basil, the Slayer of the Bulgarians, in the beginning of the eleventh century, avenged the defeat he had suffered from Samuel, king of Bulgaria, twenty-one years before, in the passes of Mt. Haemus, this city surrendered to the Byzantine army (Cedren p. 694). In the reign of Michael Palaeologus it was wrested from the emperor by the Servians, and became the residence of the Kral (Cantacuzenus, p. 778.) Finally, under Sultan Bayezid, Scupi, or the Bride of Rûmili,r eceived a colony of Ottoman Turks (Chalcondyles, p. 31). (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. 3. p. 478.)
[E.B.J]The remains of the ancient town on the Vardar (ancient Axius) river in a suburban community ca. 5 km NW of modern Skopje in Macedonia.
The Roman town was founded in the 2d c. B.C. on the site of a Dardanian settlement. It later became the Colonia Flavia Aelia Scupi and many veteran legionnaires were settled there. Scupi was the chief center for romanizing Dardania. Bishops of Scupi are known from the 4th to the 6th c. The city suffered greatly in the earthquake of 518. (Scupi was once thought to have been the site of Justiniana Prima, now identified with a city discovered near the village of Caričin Grad.)
Excavations have revealed a large but not well-preserved Roman theater and a public bath. An episcopal basilica nearby, the cemetery basilica, and a large building near the theater have also been excavated. Sections of the city wall have been exposed in recent years and a large cemetery of the Early Roman period has been excavated.
The Archaeological Museum of Skopje, the largest in Macedonia, contains finds not only from Scupi but from numerous other sites, including Stobi and Demir Kapija.
BIBLIOGRAPHYF. Papazoglu, Makedonski Gradovi u Rimsko Doba (1957) 24, 46, 87, 132, 205.
J. WISEMAN