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EGNATIA (Ancient city) PUGLIA
Egnatia or Gnatia (Egnatia or Ignatia: Eth. Gnathinos, Inscr.; Ignatinus,
Lib. Col. p. 262), a considerable town of Apulia, situated on the seacoast between
Barium and Brundusium. The Itineraries place it at 27 M. P. from the former, and
29 from the latter city. (Itin. Ant. pp. 117, 315; Tab. Peut.) Both Strabo and
Ptolemy mention it as a city of the Peucetians or southern Apulians: and Pliny
also assigns it to the Pediculi (the same people with the Peucetians), though
he elsewhere less correctly describes it as a town of the Sallentines. It must
indeed have been the last city of the Peucetians towards the frontiers of Calabria.
(Strab. vi. p. 282; Ptol. iii. 1. § 15; Mel. ii. 4; Plin. ii. 107. s. 111, iii.
11. s. 16.) Horace, who made it his last halting-place on his journey to Brundusium,
tells us that it suffered from the want of good water, and ridicules the pretended
miracle (noticed also by Pliny) shown by the inhabitants, who asserted that incense
placed on a certain altar was spontaneously consumed without the application of
fire. (Hor. Sat. i. 5. 97-100; Plin. ii. 107. s. 111.)
No mention of it is found in history, and it seems to have derived
its chief importance from its position on the high road to Brundusium, which rendered
it a convenient halting-place for travellers both by land and sea. (Strab.) There
is, however, no authority for the assertion of some Italian topographers (adopted
from them by Cramer and others), that the road from hence along the coast to Barium
and Canusium was named from this city the Via Egnatia, - still less that it gave
name to the celebrated military road across Macedonia and Thrace, from Apollonia
to the Hellespont. It appears probable, indeed, that the proper, or at least the
original, name of the city was not Egnatia, but Gnatia; which form is found in
Horace, as well as in some of the best MSS. of Pliny and Mela; and is further
confirmed by a Greek inscription, in which the name of the people is written Gnathinon.
(Tzschucke, Not. ad Mel. l. c.; Mommsen, U. I. Dialekte, p. 66.)
The period of the destruction of Egnatia is unknown, but its ruins
are still visible on the sea-coast about 6 miles SE. of Monopoli. An old tower
on the shore itself still bears the name of Torre d'Agnazzo; while considerable
portions of the walls and other remains indicate the site of the ancient city
a little more inland, extending from thence towards the modern town of Fasana.
Numerous sepulchres have been excavated in the vicinity, and have yielded an abundant
harvest of vases, terracottas, and other ancient relics, as well as a few inscriptions
in the Messapian dialect. (Pratilli, Via Appia, iv. c. 15. p. 546; Romanelli,
vol. ii. p. 146; Mommsen, U. I. Dialekte, p. 66.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
A town in Apulia on the coast of Italy. It was celebrated for its miraculous stone or altar, which of itself set on fire frankincense and wood--a prodigy which afforded amusement to Horace and his friends, who looked upon it as a mere trick. Egnatia was situated on the high-road from Rome to Brundisium, which from Egnatia to Brundisium bore the name of the Via Egnatia. The continuation of this road on the other side of the Adriatic from Dyrrhachium to Byzantium also bore the name of Via Egnatia. It was the great military road between Italy and the East. Commencing at Dyrrhachium, it passed by Lychnidus, Heraclea, Lyncestis, Edessa, Thessalonica, Amphipolis, Philippi, and traversing the whole of Thrace, finally reached Byzantium. Egnatia is called Gnatia in Horace by a popular contraction like that which gives us "Frisco" for San Francisco.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
A city between Bari and Brindisi. Ancient sources place it on the
border between Messapia and Peucezia and identify it as a maritime freight station
and crossroads for land traffic (Strab. 6.282; Ptol. 3.1.15; Mela 2.4; Plin. 2.107,
3.102). Horace (Sat. 15.97ff.) passed through Gnathia in 38 B.C. on his voyage
from Rome to Brindisi.
The earliest evidence of organized life comes from the acropolis and
dates to the Bronze and Iron Ages. About the 4th-3d c. B.C. the site acquired
the appearance characteristic of a Messapian city, surrounded by powerful walls
on its three landward sides. From this period date rich tombs, often containing
painted ornaments and furnished with valuable vases.
In the Roman period, especially during the early centuries of the
Empire, the city prospered because of its location on the principal transit route
to the Orient. In A.D. 109 the Emperor Trajan, in order to facilitate communication
between the capital and Brindisi, improved the old pack road cited by Strabo and
Horace. A stretch of this paved road, the Via Traiana, and traces of the gate
of Egnatia have recently been discovered in the course of systematic excavation.
In the Christian epoch the city was the seat of a bishopric. A bishop of Egnatia,
Rufentius, participated in the Council of Rome, convened in the early years of
the 6th c. by Pope Symmachus I. The causes of the city's destruction and end at
the beginning of the Middle Ages remain unknown.
The first systematic excavations were undertaken in 1912 and 1913
and have continued at intervals since then. The city was defended on the landward
sides by a circuit wall, almost 2 km long, preceded by a wide ditch. The wall
was of double curtain construction built of large blocks of tufa in isodomic courses,
with interior rubble fill. The best-preserved stretch of this wall is visible
near the sea. The acropolis was also defended by walls. Traces of the port establishments
are preserved underwater as a result of gradual changes in the relative level
of land and sea. Between the acropolis and the Via Traiana, was the Roman forum.
It was paved with regular blocks of tufa and enclosed by a portico with Doric
columns, covered with limestone. The Hellenistic agora was also surrounded by
porticos, later turned into shops. Not far from the two forums is a large ellipsoidal
plaza, perhaps intended as a place for spectacles. A monument with a dedicatory
inscription (sacerdos Matris Magnae et Syriae deae) documents the existence of
an Oriental cult widespread in Italy at the beginning of the Empire. The Via Traiana,
which runs parallel to the sea, divides a zone of public buildings at the foot
of the acropolis from an area of rather modest private houses. They are quadrangular
in plan, occasionally show traces of white mosaic pavements, and almost always
are furnished with catch basins to collect rainwater. Among the ruins of more
recent monuments are those of two Christian basilicas with mosaic pavements that
date from the early mediaeval period when the city was the seat of a bishopric.
The earliest necropolis lay outside the acropolis in an area that
was later included in the Roman urban plan. Sumptuous chamber tombs were often
painted and richly provided with ceramics. In the Hellenistic age the ceramics
are of the overpainted type, called vases of Gnathia because they were discovered
here in abundance for the first time.
F. G. Lo Porto, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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