Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/64

 ECRON. dwdt about Ecnomiu. (Pint. Dion. 26.) It was sobBequently occupied and fortified by the Cartha- giniaoa in their wars against Agathocles; and, in B. c. 31 1, witnessed a great defeat of the Syracnsan ^rant by the former people. On this occasion the Carthaginians under Hamilcar had established their camp immediately adjoining Ecnomus, on the right bank of the Himera; while Agathocles occupied a hill on the opposite side of the rirer, where there was alto a fortified post, ascribed to Phalaris, and called after him Phafitrium. The details of the action, as related by Diodorns (xix. 107 — 110), entirely agree with this account of the position of the two armies, and with the actual nature of the ground: the lo- calities have been fully described by D*Orville (5»- culOf pp* 1 12; 113)^ who has cleiurly established the true position of Eoiomus. The hill to whid^ the name was giyen is the extremity of a range of small elevation, extending between the sea and a plain about six miles ia length, which stretches from thence to the river Himera* It was in this plain that t^ great slaughter of the troops of Agathocles took place, in their flight, after they were driven back from the Carthaginian camp. At the foot (tf the bill of Ecnomus, on a projecting tongue of land immediately W. of tiie mouth of the Himera, stands the modem town of Licata or Aliaxta, from which the hiH above it derives the name of Monte di Li- c&Ut, On the slope of this hill towards the eea, but above the modem tovm, are the rains of an ancient eity, unquestionably those of Phintias, founded by the Agrigentine despot of that name about b. o. 280; bat which were regarded by Faeello and the earlier topographers as those of Gela, a mistake which threw the whole geography of this part of Sicily into confusion. (Cluver. SiciL pp. 211, 214; B'Orville, ie.) [Gela.] The name of Ecnomus is again mentioned by Polybius (L 25) in the First Punic War, B.C. 256, when the Ronum fleet under L. Man- lius and M. Renins touched there in order to take on board the land forces destined for the African ex- pedition : these troops were encamped apparently on the hill, which would account for the oUierwise sin- gnlar emissiop of the name of Phintias.* [E. H. B.] ECRON QKKKdptav), one of the 5 cities of the Philistines (1 Sanu v. 10, 1 1, yi. 1 7)y in the northern border of Judah {JotK xv. 11.); but assigned to the children of Dan (xix. 43.), and accordingly ascribed to that tribe in Eusebius (^Onomast, s. *.), where St. Jerome adds " ut ego lurbitror in tribu Juda." They place it between Azotus and Jamnia to the east; and St. Jerome mentions that it was sometimes supposed to be identical with Strato's Tower, after- wards Gaesareia — a manifest and inexplicable error. Its site is preserved by the modem village of J ik»r, SSW. of Ramleh in the great plain. (Robinson, B^ JUs. Tol. iii. pp. 22—24. [G. W.] ECTINI. The name of this people occurs in the Trophy of the Alps, as preserved by Pliny (iii. 20). In the inscription on the arch at Segusio ('SSuia), the name Egdiui occurs, and it is supposed that the in Schweighhilaser's Polybius (vol. i p. 69), has given the name of " Battle of Ecnomus " to the great sea-fight in which Manlius and Regulus defeated the Carthaginian fleet on their way to Africa: but it is quite clear, both from Polybius (i. 25) and from Zo- nans (viii. 12), that this battle took place off H»- nclea Minoa, to which point the Roman fleet had proceeded from Ecnomus. J^ .;. ^ . EDESSA. 805 two names mean the same people. It is conjectured that they may have been in the valley of the TYneo, a river which flows down from near ^arce^one^ into the Varf and in that part which is called the Vai St. JSttenney according to some modem authori- ties, where there are said to be Roman remains. This opinion of the site of the Ectini seems to rest on the resemblance of the name to that of the TVnea, which is not much. [G. L.] EDEBESSUS {'E:^€firicff6s : Eth. 'E^t^tratvs, 'EdejS^frtf-ios), a oity of Lycia, for which Stephanus B. («. V.) quotes Gapito. [G. L.] EDENA'TES, are mentioned in the inscription <M the Trophy of the Alps. (Plin. iii. 20). The namd of the Adanates occurs on the arch at Segusio {Su»a)f and D' Anvil le considers it the same as the name Edenates, but others do not. The difference is oer-^ tainly not much; but the object of the two inscrip- tions is not the same. D'Anville conjectures that " the name of Sedena, which is that ef the little town of SemSj in the north of Provence, in the dio- cese of Embmn, on the borders of that of Vigne^ may indicate the site of the Edenates. Seine was called Sedena in the middle ages. [G. L.] • EDESSA {"E^Mtra : Eth.'^Ziffffcuos, ^E^ffarit^ds), the ancient capital of Macedonia, was seated on the Egnatian way, at the entrance of a pass, which wa0 the most important to the kingdom, as leading from the maritime provinces into Upper Macedonia, and, by another branch of the same pass, into Lyncestia and Pelagonia. (Polyb. v. 97. § 4, xxxiv. 12. § 7; Strab. vii. p. 323, x. p. 449; Ptol. iii. 13. § 39, viii. 12. § 7; Itin. Anton.; Itm, Hieroaol; Pent. Tab.; Hierocl.; Const Porph. de Them. u. 2.) Aegae and Edessa, though some have considered that they were different towns, are no doubt to be considered as iden-i tical, the former being probably the older form. (Comp. Nicbuhr, Led. on Ano. Hist. vol. ii. p. 254, trans.; Tafel, TkessaL p. 308, de Viae Egnat. Parte Ocoid. p. 48.) The commanding and picturesque site upon which the town was built was the original centre of the Macedonians, and the residence of the dynasty which sprang from the Temenid Perdiccas. The seat of government was afterwards transferred to the marshes of Pella, which lay in the maritime plain beneath the ridge through which the Lydiaa forces its way to the sea. But the old capital always remained the national hearth (lor/a, Died. Excerpt p. 563) of the Macedonian race, and the burial-place for their kings. The body of Alex- ander the Great, though by the intrigues of Ptolemy it was taken to Memphis, was to have reposed at Aegae (Pans. i. 6. § 3), — the spot where his father Philip fell by the hand of Pausanias (Diod. xvi. 91, 92). The murdered Eurydice and her husband were buried here by order of Cassander, after having been removed from Amphipolis. (Diod. xix. 52; Athen. iv. p. 155.) Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, when he had taken the town, gave up the royal tombs to be rifled by his Gallic mercenaries, in hopes of finding trea- sure. (Plut Pffrrh. 26.) Af^r the Roman con- quest, Edessa (*' nobiUs urbs,*' Liv. xlv. 30) belonged to the third region; and imperial coins, ranging from Augustus to Sabinia Tranquillina, wife of the third Gordian, have been found, with the epigraph EAES^AIHN. (Eckhd, voL ii. p. 71; Sestini, Mon. VeL p. 37.) In the reign of Basil II., Bodena (Boti^FCl, Cedren. YoLii p. 705; Glycas, p. 309), — whence the mo- dem name, — which was strongly fortified, was od« Sf 3
 * Arnold, apparently misled by the marginal note