Naissus
Ναϊσσός
Naissus (Ναϊσσός, Steph. B. sub voce Νᾶσσος, Ptol. 3.9.6; Νάϊσος, Zosim. 3.11; Ναῖσός, Hierocl. p. 654), an important town in Upper Moesia, situated in the district Dardania, upon an eastern tributary of the river Margus, and upon the military road running through this country. It was in the neighbourhood of Naissus that Claudius II. gained his victory over the Goths in A.D. 269 (Zosim. 1.45); but the town is chiefly memorable as the birthplace of Constantine the Great. (Steph. B. sub voce Const. Porph. de Them. 2.9. p. 56, ed. Bonn.) It was destroyed by the Huns under Attila (Priscus, p. 171, ed. Bonn.), but was restored by Justinian (Procop. 4.1, where it is called Naisopolis). It still exists under the name of Nissa, upon the river Nissava, an affluent of the Morava.
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.