Mother of cities

The land changes almost immediately upon leaving Belgrade driving west over the Sava. The hills of the peninsula of Belgrade are replaced by what seems an endless plain stretching west, and north North-east into the distance. The plain is the south western most extent of the plain that stretches east pretty well to Siberia. The only blip on the horizon is Frushka Gora--Frankish Mountain. Named, so Wikipedia says as it was the place where the Franks camped.

This land was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Although the people were for the most part Serbs, culturally they retain traces of Vienna. It's seen in the the plan of the towns and villages. Houses line up, attached on both sides at the pavement. Relatively blank facades with plain doors and windows face the street. Richer people have more elaborate decoration on their homes and sometimes gates that lead into courtyards. Behind the homes are long fields.

The largest town in the area and the one we visited is Sremska Mitrovica. Once you get to the town centre, it's an attractive little place. A pedestrian mall, a park with bandstand to one side, municipal buildings on other sides. There is little evidence of anything extraordinary. No tumbled walls, no broken arches of aqueducts, no fallen columns or arches of aqueducts pop out of the ground. The slight slope to this road doesn't have to mean anything. Nor does the long street with houses on each side necessarily mean anything either.

In late antiquity, with a bit of imperial flattery, this town then Sirmium was extolled as "the mother of cities." For a few centuries it was an imperial capital, a capital of the Tetrarchy. From the model in the museum it looked very impressive. The museum archaeologist said that the Emperor Constantine even considered making it the capital of the entire empire.

Two small sections of the palace have been excavated but only one has been preserved and covered. It's a question of funding. Where there were three archeologists, now there's one. As for the slight decline in the road and the long street with homes on either side, that's the site of the Hippodrome. If my house was there I'd be tempted to dig.