Negotin (Serbian Cyrillic: Неготин) is a town and municipality located in the Bor District of eastern Serbia. It is situated near the borders between Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria. It is the judicial center of the Bor District. The population of the town is 16,882, while the municipality has a population of 35,000. The Thracians dominated the region with the Celtic Scordisci advancing after 279 BC. The Roman conquest in the 1st century BC weakened the Paleo-Balkan tribes. The Moesi, a Thracio-Dacian tribe, were defeated by the Roman army under the Marcus Licinius Crassus who was Roman consul in 30 BC. The region was organized into Moesia Inferior in 87 AD by Emperor Domitian. Later was included in the province of Dacia Remesiana. Hellenistic religious influence is attested through archeological findings in Rovine and Tamnič where Heracles was worshipped: a relief of Zeus, Herakles and Dionysos found in Bukovo.
The Roman site of Selište with necropolis has been excavated in the village of Rogljevo. Silver and gold fibulae from 250 to 320 AD have been found at sites in Negotin. After being liberated in 1804–10, Negotin quickly gained importance and size. The civilized life thrived and the government, as in the most parts of then-liberated Serbia, achieved much in matters of education and modernization. However, these great days were short lived: In 1813, after Napoleon had successfully taken Russia and Austria out of the game and therefore helping Serbia, the Turks crushed the ill-fated state of the Serbs. The defenders of Negotin chose not to evacuate and became besieged in the then-fortified town. Eventually, a Turkish gunman sighted Hajduk Veljko and shot his cannon. Veljko was hit in the chest by a cannonball and died immediately. His co-fighters buried him in an unmarked grave, so that the Turks couldn't exhume and decapitate him, as they used to do with all fallen Christian fighters. Once again, Negotin was conquered.
The Second Serbian Uprising of 1815 brought nothing to Negotin initially, having only liberated Belgrade and its vicinity. Thanks to the smart diplomacy of the Prince Miloš Obrenović, and the tactics of voivode Stevan Stevanović Tenka with 600 soldiers at the gate of the city, this part of the country was once and for all liberated in 1833, with practically no fighting. Until the formal declaration of independence in 1878, Negotin had achieved very much in a build-up of its position as a regional cultural, education and religious center. The first state school was opened in 1824, followed by a gymnasium in 1839. In time, the old Church of Our Lady became too small for the bishop of Negotin, so a grand new cathedral church was built in 1876. At the same time, many Negotinians went to famous European universities, seeking education and enlightenment, e.g., Stevan Mokranjac, one of the five most important Serbian composers and Đorđe Stanojević, a physicist and an astronomer who later became University of Belgrade Rector. Cultural life thrived, with many choral and other artistic societies. Most of the educational institutions had been opened in a matter of months after being opened in Belgrade (e.g., public library). In this period the idea of moving the town to the banks of the Danube first took a stronghold with the government and local officials. This has never happened, although other administrations have tried to do this. The town was simply too big for moving. Still, Negotin was not far from the Danube, only about 4 miles, so river transportation was possible for its trade. However, the town's position had a serious disadvantage — it was very close to the Danube, but lower than the river, so it had always been surrounded by many swamps and ponds. In the meantime, the town of Zaječar, being much closer to Niš and, therefore, to the rest of Serbia, was slowly taking over as a regional center. This advantage became much clearer especially with the construction of the railroad. Negotin was, though, more to the north and thus closer to Belgrade and the rest of Serbia, but those roads led through inaccessible mountain terrain, whereas it was much easier to go to the south, so Zaječar was, in terms of transport, much better off than Negotin. Until the beginning of the First World War, Zaječar had overtaken Negotin in terms of size and importance. The two dynasties' vying for power, resulting with, in 1903, rebellious officers killing the king and queen of Serbia, Aleksandar Obrenović and Draga Mašin, had little impact on the fate of the town. The Balkan Wars of 1912–1913 didn't bring much to this area. However, units from this part of the country took part in almost all the battles of both wars, earning respect and glory. According to the 2011 census, most of the settlements in the Negotin municipality had Serb ethnic majority. The settlement with a Vlach ethnic majority is Kovilovo. An ethnically mixed settlement with relative Vlach majority is Aleksandrovac.

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