ANTIGONEA
S Albania.
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.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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.
N.G.L. HAMMOND
