OENIADÆ (modern Trikardho), an important town of Acarnania in ancient Greece, was situated on the western bank of the Achelous (Aspropotamo), about 2 miles from the mouth of that river. Its name was probably derived from Æneus, a legendary Ætolian hero. It stood on an insulated hill, strengthened by massive walls, and surrounded on all sides by extensive morasses. These fortifications, natural and artificial, rendered the town for a considerable time a formidable and invincible foe to the
Athenians. Pericles was unable to take it by siege in 454 B.C.; Phormion advanced against it in 429 B.C., but could not pass across the swamps; and it was not until 424 B.C. that it was forced by the general Demosthenes to take the Athenian side in the Peloponnesian war. This seems to have been a fatal blow to the independence of Æniadæ. In the latter half of the fourth century B.C. it was taken by the Ætolians; in 219 B.C. it passed into the hands of Philip, King of Macedonia; and in 211 B.C. it was captured by the Romans, and given once more to the Ætolians. Although the citizens were freed from the dominion of their fellow-countrymen in 189 B.C., they never recovered their former importance. From that date Æniadæ disappeared from the arena of history. Large portions of its walls still remain in excellent preservation.