Serbinum, also known as Servitium or Servicium, was an ancient Roman city in the province of Pannonia. It was situated in the location of present-day Gradiška in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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All mentioned forms of the name (including Serbinon, Serbinum, Servitium, Seruitio, Servitii, and Serbitium) refer to a single place, which is identified as present-day Gradiška.[1]
The settlement is primarily believed to have been located on the right bank of the river Savus, but there was also a corresponding settlement on the left bank, near today's Stara Gradiška[2] that some modern-day local sources also identify as Servitium.[3][4]
In Roman times, the Municipium Servicium was an important crossroad between the east and the south of the Balkans, i.e. a port for the Roman river fleet, which speaks for itself about the strategic importance of the settlement at the time.
One theory suggests that the name could be connected to the Serbs.[5] It could be connected to the ancient Sarmatian tribe Serboi, that perhaps inhabited the Pannonian Plain together with the Iazyges. It is possible that part of the Serboi migrated to Pannonian Plain together with the Iazyges in the first century, and that Serbinum was named after them.