Tauresium, today Gradište is an archaeological site in North Macedonia, approximately 20 kilometres SE of the capital Skopje, near the village of Taor. Tauresium is the birthplace of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I (483) as well as King Theodahad of the Ostrogoths (480). The very early artefacts of the pcae dates to the Bronze Age but without any context. In 518 AD Tauresium was destroyed by the earthquake and restored by Justinian I.
Procopius of Cesarea:
Among the Dardanians of Europe who live beyond the boundaries of the Epidamnians, close to the fortress which is called Bederiana, there was a hamlet named Taurisium, whence sprang the Emperor Justinian, the founder of the civilised world. He therefore built a wall of small compass about this place in the form of a square, placing a tower at each corner, and caused it to be called, as it actually is, Tetrapyrgia. 19 And close by this place he built a very notable city which he named Justiniana Prima (this means first in the Latin tongue), thus paying a debt of gratitude to the home that fostered him. 20 Yet all Romans should have shared this debt among themselves, for this land nourished a common saviour for all of them. In that place also he constructed an aqueduct and so caused the city to be abundantly supplied with ever-running water. And many other enterprises were carried out by the founder of this city — works of great size and worthy of especial note. For to enumerate the churches is not easy, and it is impossible to tell in words of the lodgings for magistrates, the great stoas, the fine market-places, the fountains, the streets, the baths, the shops. In brief, the city is both great and populous and blessed in every way — a city worthy to be the metropolis of the whole region, for it has attained this rank. It has also been allotted to the Archbishop of Illyricum as his seat, the other cities conceding this honour to it, as being first in point of size. Thus this city has won honour for the Emperor in requital for his favour; for while it prides itself upon its foster-son, he for his part takes a corresponding pride in that he built the city. But this will be enough for me to tell; indeed it is impossible to describe everything in detail, for since the city is the Emperor's own, any account of it necessarily falls short of the reality.
He also rebuilt the entire fortress of Bederiana and made it much stronger. And there was a certain city among the Dardanians...
See:
- De aedificiis” - The Buildings of Procopius , IV.1.15- 27- https://topostext.org/work/239
- http://haemus.org.mk/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Archaeological-sites-in-Republic-of-Macedonia.pdf
- Tauresium-Tauresium - Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core