Saguntum



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   Saguntum, a city of Hispania Tarraconensis,
founded by the Zacynthians, "and situated beyond
the river Iberus, or Ebro, at the foot of a chain
of mountains (says Pliny) which divides the
Hispani from the Celtiberi, about a thousand
paces distant from the sea. It was once a
flourishing and faithful ally of the Romans.--
During the second Punic war (216 B.C.),
Saguntum was rendered famous by the
siege which it endured for four months, at the
expiration of which time Hannibal took it, and
the inhabitants, rather than that their persons and
property should fall into his hands, committed
both to the flames.-- Saguntum is stated by
Pliny to have been neither a colony nor a
municipium, but simply a town of Roman
citizens, for that writer makes a distinction
between the colonia, and the urbs or oppidum
civium Romanorum
.-- It is still a place of some
consequence in Valencia, under the modern
Spanish name of Murviedro, at the mouth of
the river of that name (the ancient Turia).--
The coins of the Saguntines (brass) are autonomous and imperial, the latter with the head and
name of Tiberius only.-- Rev. SAG. Saguntum,
and the names of the Duumvir, with the type of
a trireme and military standard. The galley
either refers to its site, or implies its maritime
importance.-- See Akerman's Coins of Cities
and Princeps
, p. 102-3.


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