AENONA
(Nin) Croatia, Yugoslavia.
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.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
M. 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
