City
Sertica
Sofia · София
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Sertica is the Roman city of Serdica, today Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. It took its name from the Serdi, a Thracian people, and became a Roman colony under the emperor Trajan, which is why its coins call it Ulpia Serdica. Diocletian made it the capital of the province of Dacia Mediterranea, Constantine used it as a residence, and in 343 a church council met here to settle the Arian dispute. Justinian renewed its walls, and the city held out as an isolated Byzantine outpost until the Bulgar khan Krum took it in 809.