Antigonea

• I In Epirus, Liv. 32, 5; 43, 23.
• —Hence, An-tĭgŏnensis: ager, Liv. 43, 23; and An-tĭgŏnenses, ium, m., its inhabitants, Plin. 4, praef. 1, 1.—
• II In Macedonia, Liv. 44, 10.—
• III In Arcadia, Plin. 4, 6, 10, § 20.—
• IV In Troas, afterwards called Alexandria, Plin. 5, 30, 33, § 124.

(Ἀντιγόνεια). (1) A town in Epirus at the junction of a tributary with the Aous, and near a narrow pass of the Acroceraunian Mountains.

(2) A town on the Orontes in Syria, founded by Antigonus as the capital of his empire (B.C. 306); but most of its inhabitants were transferred by Seleucus to Antiochia, which was built in its neighbourhood.

A city identified by inscriptions on voting discs, lies above Saraginishtë E of Argyrokastro on a ridge 762 m above sea level. Founded by Pyrinhos and named after his first wife Antigone, the city had a circuit wall ca. 4000 m long. Chief inland city of Chaonia, it controlled the fertile Drin valley and traded with Apollonia down the Aous valley, Korkyra via Onchesmos or Buthinotum, and Dodona to the S. Its forces could block the pass of the Drin through which the Illyrians and later the Romans entered Epeiros from the N (Polyb. 2.5.6; 2.6.6; and Livy 32.5.9; 43.23.2). Excavations have revealed towers and gateways of fine ashlar masonry, public buildings, some 450 coins of the Hellenistic period and evidence of metalworking in bronze and iron.

N.G.L. Hammond, Epirus (1967) 209ff; id., “Antigonea in Epirus,” JRS 61 (1971) 112ff; D. Budina, “Rezultatet e gërmimeve arkeologjike në qytetin ilir té Jermës,” Materiale të Sesionit arkeologjik (1968) 40ff; F. Prendi, “La civilisation illyrienne de la vallée du Drino,” Studia Albanica 2 (1970.2) 68ff.

• Paus. 8.8.11