Egnatia
- A city and harbor on the coast of Appulia, now Torre d’ Agnazzo or Monopoli, Plin. 2, 107, 111, § 240; the same called Gnatia, Hor. S. 1, 5, 97 sq.; Mel. 2, 4, 7; Inscr. in Avellino Bull. Arch. Ottobre, 1845.—
- II The name of a female, v. Egnatius fin.
a family of Samnite origin, Some at least of whom settled at Teanum. At the end of the social war the greater part of these appear to have removed to Rome, where two of them were admitted into the senate (Cic. Clu. 48), though a branch of the family seems still to have remained at Teanum. (Cic. Att. 6.1, mentions one Egnatius Sidicinus.) We find the following surnames borne by members of this gens : Celer, Maximus, Rufus, and Veratius. [C.P.M]
a descendant of that branch of the Egnatia gens which bore the surname of Maximus, is mentioned by Tacitus (Tac. Ann. 15.71) as the wife of Glicius Gallus, who was banished by the emperor Nero. She accompanied her husband in his exile. [C.P.M]
EGNA´TIA or GNA´TIA (Ἐγνατία or Ἰγνατία: Eth. Γναθινος, 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. 6. p. 282; Ptol. 3.1.15; Mel. 2.4; Plin. Nat. 2.107. s. 111, 3.11. 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
This at least is the construction put by all the best commentators upon the phrase of Horace,--Lymphis iratis exstructa:b ut it is remarkable that modern topographers speak of the site as abounding in fresh water, and having one fountain in particular, still called the Fonte d'Agnazzo, which is one of the finest in the whole country. (Pratilli, Via Appia, p. 544; Romanelli, vol. 2. p. 146.)
, 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. 1.5. 97--100; Plin. Nat. 2.107. 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. l. c.) 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 ΓΝΑΘΙΝΩΝ. (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, 4.100.15. p. 546; Romanelli, vol. 2. p. 146; Mommsen, U. I. Dialekte, p. 66.)
[E.H.B]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 ( I. v. 98). 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.