Terpni ( el, Τερπνή) is a small town in the Serres regional unit,

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

. Since the 2011 local government reform it is a municipal unit of the municipality of

Visaltia Visaltia ( el, Βισαλτία, ) is a municipality in the Serres regional unit, Greece. The seat of the municipality is in Nigrita. It was named after the ancient region Bisaltia. The ancient city of Berge is located here. Municipality The mu ...

, whose the seat is in

Nigrita Nigrita ( el, Νιγρίτα) is a town and a former municipality in the Serres regional unit, Macedonia, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Visaltia, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit. The ...

. It has a population of 2,169 inhabitants (2011 census) and until 1928 was named Tserpista.

History

Greek and Roman Antiquity

A few kilometers southwest of Terpni, on the hill named Palaiokastro, are preserved the ruins of an ancient settlement identified with the Roman waystation (''

mutatio In the Roman Empire, a ''mansio'' (from the Latin word ''mansus,'' the perfect passive participle of ''manere'' "to remain" or "to stay") was an official stopping place on a Roman road, or ''via'', maintained by the central government for the use ...

'') Graero, known from the Roman itineraries. From a Greek inscription of Roman imperial times, we are informed that this settlement had the size of a city (''

polis ''Polis'' (, ; grc-gre, πόλις, ), plural ''poleis'' (, , ), literally means "city" in Greek. In Ancient Greece, it originally referred to an administrative and religious city center, as distinct from the rest of the city. Later, it also ...

'') with all its known architectural monuments (

bouleuterion A bouleuterion ( grc-gre, βουλευτήριον, ''bouleutērion''), also translated as and was a building in ancient Greece which housed the council of citizens (, ''boulē'') of a democratic city state. These representatives assembled a ...

, gymnasium, etc.).D. C. Samsaris, La vallée du Bas-Strymon á l’ époque impériale (Contribution épigraphique á la topographie, l’ onomastique, l’ histoire et aux cultes de la province romaine de Macédoine), Δωδώνη 18(1989), τεύχ. 1, σ. 222-223, αρ. 17
The Packard Humanities Institute (Samsaris, Bas-Strymon 17, # PH150654)
Δ. Κ. Σαμσάρης, Ανέκδοτη επιγραφή των αυτοκρατορικών χρόνων από την Τερπνή Νιγρίτας, "Μακεδονικά" 20 (1980) 1-8

References

Populated places in Serres (regional unit) Archaeological sites in Macedonia (Greece) Geography of Macedonia (region) {{CMacedonia-geo-stub Roman sites in Greece

History

Greek and Roman Antiquity

See also

References