Nis Serbia Serbia

The Romans ally with the Geto-Dacians to defend Moesia, an imperial province roughly corresponding to present-day northern Bulgaria, against the Sarmatians, a group of nomadic Central Asian tribes.

Roman engineers and architects help the Getae construct fortresses until the Romans discover that the Geto-Dacians are preparing to turn against them.

The Dacian king Duras again orders his troops to attack Roman Moesia in 86.

After this attack, the Roman emperor Domitian personally arrives in Moesia and in August 86 and reorganizes it into two provinces, divided by the river Cebrus (Ciabrus): to the west Moesia Superior—Upper Moesia, (meaning up river) and …

Rome, in a bid to ease conflict in the upper Danube region, allows some German tribes to settle within the Empire in 171.

The Goths break the peace treaty, renewing their attacks early in 253.

The army is not pleased with the emperor and when Marcus Aemilius Aemilianus, who had replaced Gallus as governor of Moesia Superior and Pannonia, takes the initiative of battle and defeats the Goths in midyear, the soldiers proclaim him emperor.

Gallienus leads a large Roman force into Moesia to cut off the army of Goths, three hundred and twenty thousand strong, now retreating by land from its plunder of Aegean coastal cities.

The two armies meet at Naissus (modern Niš, Serbia), where the Romans slaughter the Goths by the thousands.

His attention demanded by the revolt of a usurper, Aureolus, in Italy, Gallienus returns there without further pursuit of the survivors, who flee to armed encampments to the northeast.

The Goths are now retreating by land from their plunder of Greece’s Aegean coastal cities into the province of Pannonia, their invasion leading to disaster and even threatening Rome, while the Alamanni, a loosely knit confederation of tribes composed of fragments of several Germanic peoples, are simultaneously raising havoc in the northern part of Italy.

Emperor Gallienus, now fifty, halts the progress of the Alamanni by defeating them in battle in April 268, then turns north and wins several victories over the Goths.

His attention demanded by problems in Italy, Gallienus returns there without further pursuit of the survivors, who flee to armed encampments to the northeast.

In the autumn, he turns on the Goths once again, leading a large Roman force into Moesia to cut off the Gothic army.

Claudius, having succeeded Gallienus as emperor leads the Roman army to victory (although the cavalry commander Lucius Domitius Aurelianus is the real victor) at the Battle of Naissus, where the Romans slaughter the Goths by the thousands in 269.

Large numbers on both sides are killed but, at the critical point, the Romans trick the Goths into an ambush by pretended flight.

Some fifty thousand Goths are allegedly killed or taken captive.

It seems that Aurelian, who was in charge of all Roman cavalry during reign of Claudius, led the decisive attack in the battle.

Moesia is a prosperous province, since surplus wheat from the Black Sea area is always assured of a market in the Roman Empire.

In the province's interior, agriculture and fruit growing flourish, and there is mineral wealth in the Balkan Mountains.

The province has suffered heavily from the barbarian invasions of the third century CE, and when the neighboring province of Dacia is abandoned in about 274, its inhabitants are largely transferred to Moesia.

Bulgarian tsar Peter II Delyan takes Niš and …

Stefan Nemanja had sent an envoy in 1188 to Nuremberg, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa's capital, inviting him to stay during while crusading to the Holy Land with Count Berthold Andechs of Istria's Krain, who is at the same time Duke of Croatia and Slavonia.

The Emperor had disembarked on the Third Crusade and arrives on July 27, 1189 with one hundred thousand crusaders to Niš, where Stefan Nemanja and Stracimir accept and host the German monarch.

A marriage is arranged between Barthold Andex's daughter and Miroslav's son Toljen to strengthen Serbian-German relations.

Nemanja's proposals to Barbarossa that he should abandon the Holy War and strike at Constantinople with him meet little approval.

Frederick needs Constantinople’s help to move his military might to Asia.

The emperor’s plans change when an imperial force stops him from reaching his next stop: Sophia.

The Greeks also start raiding his Army, which infuriates the Emperor so much that he plans an offensive to Constantinople itself.

Stefan Nemanja offers twenty thousand men to support the Emperor's military campaign, while the Bulgarians offer more than twice that amount.

…Nish in 1386.