Aenona
About 14 km N of Zadar, an important center of the Liburni from the Early Iron Age, as confirmed by the rich finds in several necropoleis of the 9th to the 1st c. B.C. After the suppression of the Illyrian rebellion (A.D. 6-9), Aenona became a municipium under Tiberius. It was a center in a large and important civitas mentioned by Pliny among the coastal centers of the Liburni (HN 3.140).
The peninsula on which it stood (450 m long) was encircled with walls and connected by two bridges to the mainland and a road to lader. Some parts of the walls are still visible under mediaeval walls. At the intersection of the cardo and decumanus is the forum with a monumental temple on the W side, built in the 1st c. A.D. most probably by the Flavian emperors. It had an elevated podium with the six columns in front; the interior was divided into three naves by columns. The temple was probably a center of the imperial cult if the monumental statues of Augustus and Tiberius can be assigned to it. Its dimensions (45 x 21.5 m) make it the largest temple to be excavated so far in Yugoslavia. A rich necropolis of the 1st-3d c. lay along the road to lader. In the ager of Aenona the remains of an aqueduct were found. The many inscriptions from the area indicate a romanized Liburnian population that respected their native traditions. By 500 Aenona was under the Ostrogoths. At the beginning of the 7th c. it was conquered by Croats. The finds are preserved in a local archaeological collection and in the Archaeological Museum at Zadar.
BIBLIOGRAPHYM. Suić et al., Nin, Problems of Archaeological Excavations (1968); id., “Antički Nin (Aenona) i njegovi spomenici,” RADOVI (Institute of Yugoslav Academy at Zadar) 16-17 (1969), 61-104.
M. ZANINOVIĆ