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Saguntum

more rarely Saguntus. Now Murviedro, said to have been founded by the Zacynthians; a town of the Edetani or Sedetani, in Spain, south of the Iberus, on the river Palantias, about three miles from the coast. Although south of the Iberus, it had formed an alliance with the Romans; and its siege by Hannibal, B.C. 219, was the immediate cause of the Second Punic War (Livy, xxi. 14 foll.). The ruins of a theatre and a temple of Bacchus are extant at Murviedro, which is a corruption of muri veteres. The town was celebrated for its manufacture of beautiful cups. The name Saguntum is a phonetic corruption of Ζάκυνθος.

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