AECAE, DIOCESI di. — This center stood in the territory of the Dauni, in Capitanata, on the Via Traiana, which, branching off from Benevento, joined the Via Egnazia at A. It was of great importance during the Second Punic War; it fell into Hannibal’s hands and was retaken by Fabius in 214 B.C. It is mentioned by Pliny. It became a Roman colony under Septimius Severus. Its development was due to its geographical position in relation to the Tavoliere below and to the roads leading there. It declined rapidly and was apparently destroyed in the 7th century. It regained prominence and took its present name of Troia in 1017, through the agency of the Byzantines.
Little information is available concerning the diocese, which was included in Region II. The bishops whose names have been handed down to us are: 1) Dynamius, whose existence is problematic; 2) St. Eleutherius: this saint, mentioned in a Greek text (BHG, 568–70) as an Illyrian bishop and martyr in Rome with his mother Anzia under Hadrian, becomes a bishop of A. in the Latin translation (BHL, 2451). It is doubtful whether the Greek martyrdom was adapted to a St. Eleutherius venerated in A., or whether an attempt was made to explain the presence of his relics in A. by making him bishop of the city; 3) St. Mark, probably of the 4th century: the legend (BHL, 2297) speaks of a Mark «Aecanæ urbis episcopus»; he is said to have been one of the twelve African bishops expelled by the Vandals and who landed on the Campanian shore. It is more likely that his remains were brought there after the destruction of A. St. Mark also had an ancient cult in Benevento and elsewhere; 4) Secondinus. While Troia was being built upon the ruins of the destroyed A., the mausoleum of a bishop of this name was discovered in the cemetery and church of S. Marco. The funerary inscription recorded that he had restored a church, perhaps that of SS. Donato and Felice; 5) Marcian or Martianus, in 501–502.