THE ORIGIN OF ANTINOUS CULT IN ROMAN SETTLEMENT NEAR SOČANICA А Roman settlement, located near the village of Sočanica, was part-ly explored around 1960’s. Systematic excavations headed by archae-ologist E. Čerškov and resulted in quite a large number of mobile andimmobile finds helped form a clearer picture of the history, economyand urban layout of the settlement known as Municipium DD. Withthis paper we want to draw attention to the temple of Antinous, inparticular to the origin of Antinous cult in Sočanica. Apart from Lanu-vium, Carnuntum and Hadrian’s villa in Tivoli, where this cult hasbeen confirmed with epigraphic evidence, the temples consecrated toAntinous are rare in the western part of the Roman Empire. Judgingby the spatial organization and some aspects of the cult, the sanctuaryhas certain analogy with the sacred complexes erected in Greece inthe time of the emperor Hadrian. In Municipium DD there occurredthe binding of the Antinous cult, in the form which it was practiced inthe West, with the cult practices conducted in East. While in the west-ern parts the followers of the cult belonged to the circle of Emperor’sclosest associates, imperial slaves, and freed slaves; in the easternparts of the empire the initiators were senators and wealthy citizensof Greek origin who in this way wanted to show their devotion to theEmperor. For the same reasons the cult was introduced in Sočanica.