Temple
Ad Herculem
Žitorađa
Listen to the story
Ad Herculem, 'at Hercules', named after the hero famed for his strength, was the first station on the road from Naissus, now Niš, across the mountains to Lissus on the Adriatic, and it lay near the Serbian village of Žitorađa. The map draws a small temple between two towers, and the name turns up once more, without a picture, on the road just below. The historian Jordanes tells how, in 471, the young Goth Theodoric was sent past this fort of Hercules, and under the emperor Justinian the fort was rebuilt.