Aecae
- a city of Apulia, southeast of Luceria, now Troja, Liv. 24, 20, 5.
- —Hence, Aecani, orum, m., the inhabitants of Aecae, Plin. 3, 11, 16, § 105.
AECAE (Αἶκαι: Eth. Aecanus: Troja), a town of Apulia mentioned both by Polybius and Livy, during the military operations of Hannibal and Fabius in that country. In common with many other Apulian cities it had joined the Carthaginians after the battle of Cannae, but was recovered by Fabius Maximus in B.C. 214, though not without a regular siege. (Plb. 3.88; Liv. 24.20.) Pliny also enumerates the Aecani among the inland towns of Apulia (3.11); but its position is more clearly determined by the Itineraries, which place it on the Appian Way between Equus Tuticus and Herdonia, at a distance of 18 or 19 miles from the latter city. (Itin. Ant. p. 116; Itin. Hier. p. 610; the Tab. Peut. places it between Equus Tuticus and Luceria, but without giving the distances.) This interval exactly accords with the position of the modern city of Troja, and confirms the statements of several chroniclers of the middle ages, that the latter was founded about the beginning of the eleventh century, on the ruins of the ancient Aecae. Cluverius erroneously identified Aecae with Accadia, a village in the mountains S. of Bovino; but his error was rectified by Holstenius. Troja is an episcopal see, and a place of some consideration; it stands on a hill of moderate elevation, rising above the fertile plain of Puglia, and is 9 miles S. of Lucera, and 14 SW. of Foggia. (Holsten. Not. in Cluver. p. 271; Romanelli, vol. 2. p. 227; Giustiniani, Diz. Geogr. vol. 9. p. 260.)
[E.H.B]A city of the Daunii 22 km SW of Foggia on the Via Traiana, which runs between Benevento and Brindisi. It was taken by Hannibal after the battle of Cannae and was reconquered two years later in 214 B.C. by Fabius Maximus (Polyb. 3.88; Livy 24.20). In the Imperial age the city was called Colonia Augusta Apula (CIL IX, 950) and was perhaps ascribed to the tribus Papiria (CIL VI, 2381). In Pliny (HN 3.105) the name appears as Aecani (cf. ager Aecanus in Lib. Colon., p. 210), and as Aecas on the itineraries.
The ruins of the ancient city lie under the present town. Stelai, Daunian tombs, and Roman inscriptions have been found in the surrounding necropoleis. Finds from the site are preserved in the municipal building at Troja and in the Museo Civico at Foggia.
BIBLIOGRAPHYW. Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, I (1856) 29 (E. H. Bunbury); RE I.1 (1894) 443 (Hülsen); E. De Ruggiero, Dizionario epigrafico di antichittà romane, I (1895) 135; K. Miller, Itineraria Romana (1916) 373.
F. G. LO PORTO