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.