ANAGNIA (Anagni) Italy.
The capital of the Ernici in the valley of the Sacco (Trerus) at an elevation of 460 m. In 305 B.C. the Ernici were finally defeated by Rome (Livy 9.43.24). The city later became a civitas without suffrage, and by the time of Cicero (De Dom. 81) it was a municipium.In the pre-Roman period the city must have extended slightly beyond the area covered in the Roman era. Inside the enclosing wall in the S part of the city several tombs from the second half of the 4th c. B.C. are of great importance for the dating of the great city wall in opera quadrata, which is largely preserved. Within it may be distinguished several brief stretches of very fine polygonal work, which must be dated to the period of the city's independence. The three sanctuaries in the city probably date from the same period. One of these was dedicated to Venus Libitina.
The walls from the Roman period are datable to the end of the 4th c. with various rebuildings, among which are the extensive terraces called the Arcazzi. A large foundation datable to the age of Sulla must have provided an artificial level for the forum above. In the suburbs has been found a large votive deposit of the late Republican era in connection with a sanctuary perhaps dedicated to Ceres. There are also remains probably of the Coinpitum Anagninum (mentioned in the Itineraries) on the Via Latina and the Via Labicana (cf. also Livy 26.4.12) and of various villas, among them the Villa Magna built by Septimius Severus (CIL X, 5909).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
R. A. De Magistris, Storia di Anagni (1889); P. Zappasodi, Anagni attraverso i secoli (1908); M. Mazzolani, Anagnia (Forma Italiae) (1969).F. CASTAGNOLI