Volume 1

A dictionary of Greek and Roman geography / by various writers ; edited by William Smith.

Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A dictionary of Greek and Roman geography / by various writers ; edited by William Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    49/1140 (page 27)
    cording to the Itin. Ant. (pp. 308, 310) Adria was the point of junction of the Via Salaria and Valeria, a circumstance which probably contributed to its importance and flourishing condition under the Roman empire. It is now generally admitted, that the coins of Adria (with the legend Hat.) belong to the city of Picenum; but great difference of opinion has been entertained as to their age. They belong to the class commonly known as Aes Grave, and are even among the heaviest specimens known, exceeding in weight the most ancient Roman asses. On this account they have been assigned to a very remote antiquity, some referring them to the Etruscan, others to the Greek, settlers. But there seems much reason to believe that they are not really so ancient, and belong, in fact, to the Roman colony, which was founded previous to the general reduction of the Italian brass coinage. (Eckhel, vol. i. p. 98; Muller, Etrttsher, vol. i. p. 308; Bbckh, Metrologie^ p. 379; Mommsen, Das Romische Munzwesen, p. 231; Mil- hngen, Numismatigue de Vltalie^ p. 216.) [E.H.B.] ADRIATICUM MARE (d ^ASpIas), is the name given both by Greek and Latin writers to the inland sea still called the which separates Italy from Illyricum, Dahnatia and Epeirus, and is connected at its southern extremity with the Ionian Sea. It appears to have been at first regarded by the Greeks as a mere gulf or inlet of the Ionian Sea, whence the expression d ’ASptas ((coAttos sc.), which first came into use, became so firmly established that it always maintained its ground among the Greek writers of the best ages, and it is only at a later period or in exceptional cases that we find the expressions 7] 'ASpidur) or ’ASpiart/ci; 3^dAa(rtra. (The former ex- pression is employed by Scymnus Chius, 368; and the latter in one instance by Strabo, iv. p. 204.) The Latins frequently termed it Mare Superum, the Upper Sea, as opposed to the Tyrrhenian or Lower Sea (Mare Inferum); and the phrase is copied from them by Polybius and other Greek writers. It appears probable indeed that this was the common or vernacular expression among the Romans, and that the name of the Adriatic was a mere geographical designation, perhaps borrowed in the first instance from the Greeks. The use of Adria or Hadria in Latin for the name of the sea, was certainly a mere Graecism, first introduced by the poets (Hor. Carm.i.3. 15, iii. 3. 5, &c.; Catull. xxxvi. 15), though it is sometimes used by prose writers also. (Senec. Ep. 90; Mela, ii. 2, &c.) According to Herodotus (i. 163) the Phocaeans were the first of the Greeks who discovered the Adri- atic, or at least the first to explore its recesses, but the Phoenicians must have been well acquainted ivith it long before, as they had traded with the Venetians for amber from a very early period. It has, indeed, been contended, that 6 ’ASpiTjs in Herodotus (both in tiiis passage and in iv. 33, v. 9) means not the sea or gulf so called, but a region or district about the head of it. But in this case it seems highly improbable that precisely the same expression should have come into general use, as we certainly find it not long after the time of Herodotus, for the sea itself.* Hecataeus also (if we can trust to the ac- curacy of Stephanus B. s. v. ’ASp/os) appears to have used the full expression k6\ttos ’ASpias. The natural limits of the Adriatic are very clearly marked by the contraction of the opposite shores at its entrance, so as to forai a kind of strait, not ex- ceeding 40 G. miles in breadth, between the Acro- ceraunian promontory in Epirus, and the coast of Calabria near Hydruntum, in Italy. This is accord- ingly correctly assumed both by Strabo and Pliny as the southern hmits of the Adriatic, as it was at an earlier period by Scylax and Polybius, the latter of whom expressly tells us that Oricus was the first city on the right hand after entering the Adriatic. (Strab. vii. p. 317; Plin. iii. 11. s. 16; Scylax, § 14, p. 5, § 27, p. 11; Pol. vii. 19; Mela, ii. 4.) But it appears to have been some time before the appel- lation was received in this definite sense, and the use of the name both of the Adriatic and of the Ionian Gulf was for some time very vague and fluctuating. It is probable, that in the earliest times the name of 6 ’Adp'ias was confined to the part of the sea in the immediate neighbourhood of Adria itself and the mouths of the Padus, or at least to the upper part near the head of the gnlph, as in the passages of Herodotus and Hecataeus above cited; but it seems that Hecataeus liimself in another passage (ap. Steph. B. s. V. ''icTTpoC) described the Istrians as dwelling on the Ionian gulf, and Hellanicus (ap. Dion. Hal. i. 28) spoke of the Padus as flowing into the Ionian gulf. In like manner Thucydides (i. 24) describes Epidamnus as a city on the right hand as you enter the Ionian gulf. At tliis period, there- fore, the latter expression seems to have been at least the more common one, as applied to the whole sea. But very soon after we find the orators Lysias and Isocrates employing the term 6 ’Adpias in its more extended sense: and Scylax (who must have been nearly contemporary with the latter) ex- pressly tells us that the Adriatic and Ionian gulfs were one and the same. (Lys. Or. c. Diog. § 38, p. 908; Isocr. Philipp. § 7; Scylax, § 27, p. 11.) From this time no change appears to have taken place in the use of the name, 6 ’ASpioJ being fami- liarly used by Greek writers for the modem Adriatic (Theophr. iv. 5. §§ 2, 6; Pseud. Aristot. de Mirab. §§ 80, 82; Scymn. Ch. 132, 193, &c.,; Pol. ii. 17, iii. 86, 87, &c.) until after the Christian era. But subsequently to that date a very singular change was introduced: for while the name of the Adriatic Gulf (6 ’Adpias, or ^ASpiaTiuhs kSXttos') became re- stricted to the upper portion of the inland sea now known by the same name, and the lower portion nearer the strait or entrance was commonly known as the * The expressions of Polybius (iv. 14,16) cited by Muller (EtrusJeer, i. p. 141) in support of this view, certainly cannot be relied on, as the name of 6 ’ASpias was fully established as that of the sea, long before his time, and is repeatedly used by him- self in this sense. But his expresrions are singu- larly vague and fluctuating: thus we find ivithin a few pages, d Kara rov ’Adpiar i(6\ttos, 6 rod iravros ’Adpiov pvx^s, 6 'AbpiaTiKos pvxds, 7] Kara ■'hu ’Adpiar ^aXarra, etc. (See Schweighauser’s Index to Polybius, p. 197.)