ANNISTON, a city and the county seat of Calhoun county, Alabama, U.S.A., in the north-eastern part of the state, about 63 m. E. by N. of Birmingham. Pop. (1890) 9998; (1900), 9695, of whom 3669 were of negro descent; (1910 census) 12,794. Anniston is served by the Southern, the Seaboard Air Line, and the Louisville & Nashville railways. The city is situated on the slope of Blue Mountain, a chain of the Blue Ridge, and is a health resort. It is the seat of the Noble Institute (for girls), established in 1886 by Samuel Noble (1834-1888), a wealthy iron-founder, and of the Alabama Presbyterian College for Men (1905). There are vast quantities of iron ore in the vicinity of the city, the Coosa coal-fields being only 25 m. distant. Anniston is an important manufacturing city, the principal industries being the manufacture of iron, steel and cotton. In 1905 the city’s factory products were valued at $2,525,455. An iron furnace was established on the site of Anniston during the Civil War, but it was destroyed by the federal troops in 1865; and in 1872 it was rebuilt on a much larger scale. The city was founded in 1872 as a private enterprise, by the Woodstock Iron Company, organized by Samuel Noble and Gen. Daniel Tyler (1799-1882); but it was not opened for general settlement until twelve years later. It was chartered as a city in 1879.
ANNO, or Hanno, SAINT (c. 1010-1075), archbishop of Cologne, belonged to a Swabian family, and was educated at Bamberg. He became confessor to the emperor Henry III., who appointed him archbishop of Cologne in 1056. He took a prominent part in the government of Germany during the minority of King Henry IV., and was the leader of the party which in 1062 seized the person of Henry, and deprived his mother, the empress Agnes, of power. For a short time Anno exercised the chief authority in the kingdom, but he was soon obliged to share this with Adalbert, archbishop of Bremen, retaining for himself the supervision of Henry’s education and the title of magister. The office of chancellor of the kingdom of Italy was at this period regarded as an appanage of the archbishopric of Cologne, and this was probably the reason why Anno had a considerable share in settling the papal dispute in 1064. He declared Alexander II. to be the rightful pope at a synod held at Mantua in May 1064, and took other steps to secure his recognition. Returning to Germany, he found the chief power in the hands of Adalbert, and as he was disliked by the young king, he left the court but returned and regained some of his former influence when Adalbert fell from power in 1066. He succeeded in putting down a rising against his authority in Cologne in 1074, and it was reported he had allied himself with William the Conqueror, king of England, against the emperor. Having cleared himself of this charge, Anno took no further part in public business, and died at Cologne on the 4th of December 1075. He was buried in the monastery of Siegburg and was canonized in 1183 by Pope Lucius III. He was a founder of monasteries and a builder of churches, advocated clerical celibacy and was a strict disciplinarian. He was a man of great energy and ability, whose action in recognizing Alexander II. was of the utmost consequence for Henry IV. and for Germany.
There is a Vita Annonis, written about 1100, by a monk of Siegburg, but this is of slight value. It appears in the Monumenta Germaniae historica: Scriptores, Bd. xi. (Hanover and Berlin, 1826-1892). There is an “Epistola ad monachos Malmundarienses” by Anno in the Neues Archiv der Gesellschaft für altere deutsche Geschichtskunde, Bd. xiv. (Hanover, 1876 seq.). See also the Annolied, or Incerti poetae Teutonici rhythmus de S. Annone, written about 1180, and edited by J. Kehrein (Frankfort, 1865); Th. Lindner, Anno II. der Heilige, Erzbischof von Koln (Leipzig, 1869).
ANNOBON, or Anno Bom, an island in the Gulf of Guinea, in 1° 24′ S. and 5° 35′ E., belonging to Spain. It is 110 m. S.W. of St Thomas. Its length is about 4 m., its breadth 2, and its area 6¾ sq. m. Rising in some parts nearly 3000 ft. above the sea, it presents a succession of beautiful valleys and steep mountains, covered with rich woods and luxuriant vegetation. The inhabitants, some 3000 in number, are negroes and profess belief in the Roman Catholic faith. The chief town and residence of the governor is called St Antony (San Antonio de Praia). The roadstead is tolerably safe, and passing vessels take advantage of it in order to obtain water and fresh provisions, of which Annobon contains an abundant supply. The island was discovered by the Portuguese on the 1st of January 1473, from which circumstance it received its name (= New Year). Annobon, together with Fernando Po, was ceded to Spain by the Portuguese in 1778. The islanders revolted against their new masters and a state of anarchy ensued, leading, it is averred, to an arrangement by which the island was administered by a body of five natives, each of whom held the office of governor during the period that elapsed till ten ships touched at the island. In the latter part of the 19th century the authority of Spain was re-established.
ANNONA (from Lat. annus, year), in Roman mythology, the personification of the produce of the year. She is represented in works of art, often together with Ceres, with a cornucopia (horn of plenty) in her arm, and a ship’s prow in the background, indicating the transport of grain over the sea. She frequently occurs on coins of the empire, standing between a modius (corn-measure) and the prow of a galley, with ears of corn in one hand and a cornucopia in the other; sometimes she holds a rudder or an anchor. The Latin word itself has various meanings: (1) the produce of the year’s harvest; (2) all means of subsistence, especially grain stored in the public granaries for provisioning the city; (3) the market-price of commodities, especially corn; (4) a direct tax in kind, levied in republican times in several provinces, chiefly employed in imperial times for distribution amongst officials and the support of the soldiery.
In order to ensure a supply of corn sufficient to enable it to be sold at a very low price, it was procured in large quantities from Umbria, Etruria and Sicily. Almost down to the times of the empire, the care of the corn-supply formed part of the aedile’s duties, although in 440 B.C. (if the statement in Livy iv. 12, 13 is correct, which is doubtful) the senate appointed a special officer, called praefectus annonae, with greatly extended powers. As a consequence of the second Punic War, Roman agriculture was at a standstill; accordingly, recourse was had to Sicily and Sardinia (the first two Roman provinces) in order to keep up the supply of corn; a tax of one-tenth was imposed on it, and its export to any country except Italy forbidden. The price at which the corn was sold was always moderate; the corn law of Gracchus (123 B.C.) made it absurdly low, and Clodius (58 B.C.) bestowed it gratuitously. The number of the recipients of this free gift grew so enormously, that both Caesar and Augustus were obliged to reduce it. From the time of Augustus to the end of the empire the number of those who were entitled to receive a monthly allowance of corn on presenting a ticket was 200,000. In the 3rd century, bread formed the dole. A praefectus annonae was appointed by Augustus to superintend the corn-supply; he was assisted by a large staff in Rome and the provinces, and had jurisdiction in all matters connected with the corn-market. The office lasted till the latest times of the empire.