Serbia

Sources from old books

1635. Historia mundi: or Mercator's atlas. London. by Gerhard Mercator.

SERVIA, which Lazius calls the higher Maesia, is a Country betweene Bosnia and Bulgaria. Some suppose that this was the Triballians Country: and that these people came hither, at the declining of the Graecian and Romane Empire. Cuspianus and Volaterranus doe write that the Trojans did inhabit Servia and Rasica. The chiefe Citty of Servia was Sinderovia, which some doe call Spenderoben, and other Simandria, or Semendria, the Turkes doe call it Semender, and the Hungarians Zendrow, which lyeth not farre from Belgradus by the bankes of Danubius, and it was taken by the Turkish Emperour Amurath, in the yeere 1428. and reduced into a Sangiacate under the Beglerbeg of Buda. There are also the Townes Vidina, which the Turkes call Kiratovum, which is seated by the Mountaine Argentarus. Also Novogradum on the borders of Servia, which some do call the new Mountaine, it hath an impregnable Castle. There is also the black Mountaine, in which there are Silver Mines. There are also Samandria, and Prisdena, where the Emperour Iustinian was borne. Also Stonibrigadum, and Belgradum, heretofore called Taurunum.