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Map of the Roman Empire - Sea of Adria
Sea of Adria
J-4 on the Map
Ancient Sea of Adria - The ancient Adriatic Sea and also the waters south of it. It was mentioned in the Bible in Acts 27:27. The Sea of Adria separated Italy from Illyricum, Dalmatia and Epeirus, and its southern portion is connected to the Ionian Sea. Ancient writers spoke of this sea as a place of sudden storms.
Acts 27:27 - But when the fourteenth night was come, as we were driven up and down in Adria, about midnight the shipmen deemed that they drew near to some country;
Hadriaticum Mare - The Adriatic Sea (ὁ Ἀδρίας), properly called by the Romans Mare Supĕrum or Upper Sea, as opposed to the Mare Inferum or Tyrrhenian Sea. The Romans also, in imitation of the Greeks, used the feminine form Hadria or Adria. The Adriatic separated Italy from Illyricum, Dalmatia, and Epirus, and is connected at its southern extremity with the Ionian Sea. It was first explored by the Phocaeans of the Greeks (Herod.i. 163). The ancient writers frequently speak of it as dreaded by sailors for its sudden storms (Hor. Carm. i. 3, 15; iii. 9, 23, etc.). The name is derived from the Etruscan city Hatria, at the mouth of the Padus (Po). - Harry Thurston Peck. Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. New York. Harper and Brothers. 1898.
Adriatic Sea. The Adriatic Sea (pronounced /ˌeɪdriˈętɨk/) is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan peninsula, and the system of the Apennine Mountains from that of the Dinaric Alps and adjacent ranges. The Adriatic Sea is a northwest-to-southeast arm of the Mediterranean Sea. The western coast is Italian, while the eastern coast runs along Slovenia (47 km), Croatia (5,835 km) , Bosnia and Herzegovina (26 km), Montenegro (294 km), and Albania (295 km). Major rivers joining the Adriatic are the Reno, Po, Adige/Etsch, Brenta, Piave, Soča/Isonzo, Zrmanja, Krka, Cetina, Neretva, and Drin (Drini).
Ancient History. Originally, the sea was known in Latin as Mare Superum. Later, it was replaced by Mare (H)Adriaticum. The name, derived from the Etruscan colony of Adria (or Hadria), originally designated only the upper portion of the sea (Herodotus vi. 127, vii. 20, ix. 92; Euripides, Hippolytus, 736), but was gradually extended as the Syracusan colonies gained in importance. The name Adria is derived from the Illyrian word adur meaning "water" or "sea". But even then the Adriatic in the narrower sense only extended as far as the Monte Gargano, the outer portion being called the Ionian Sea: the name was sometimes, however, inaccurately used to include the Gulf of Tarentum (the modern-day Gulf of Taranto), the Sea of Sicily, the Gulf of Corinth and even the sea between Crete and Malta (Acts xxvii. 27). The Adriatic Sea is situated largely between the eastern coast of Italy and Croatia, which are both major tourist attractions. It was used by the ancient Romans to transport goods (including animals and slaves) to Ostia (the Roman port). - Wikipedia
Hadriaticum (Hadriaticus sinus) mare, a gulf of the Mediterranean, washing the shores of Macedonia and Illyria E. and of Italy w. In St. Paul's time, the appellation was also applied to the sea bet. Crete and Sicily. Named from Hadria, or, according to some antiquaries, from the Greek adros, " vehement." Adriatic. - Classical Gazetteer
ADRIATICUM MARE
ADRIA“TICUM MARE (ἡ Ἀδίας), is the name given both by Greek and Latin writers to
the inland sea still called the Adriatic, which separates Italy from Illyricum,
Dalmatia 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 ἡ Ἀδρίας (κόλπος 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 ἡ Ἀδριάνη or
Ἀδριατικν̀ Θάλασσα. (The former expression 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. 1.3.15,
3.3. 5, &c.; Catull. 36.15), though it is sometimes used by prose writers also.
(Senec. Ep. 90; Mela, 2.2, &c.)
According to Herodotus (1.163) the Phocaeans were the first of the Greeks who
discovered the Adriatic, or at least the first to explore its recesses, but the
Phoenicians must have been well acquainted with it long before, as they had
traded with the Venetians for amber from a very early period. It has, indeed,
been contended, that ὁ Ἀδρίης in Herodotus (both in this passage and in 4.33,
5.9) 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.1 Hecataeus also (if we can
trust to the accuracy of Stephanus B. s. v. Ἀδρίας) appears to have used the
full expression κόλπος Ἀδρίας.
The natural limits of the Adriatic are very clearly marked by the contraction of
the opposite shores at its entrance, so as to form a kind of strait, not
exceeding 40 G. miles in breadth, between the Acroceraunian promontory in
Epirus, and the coast of Calabria near Hydruntum, in Italy. This is accordingly
correctly assumed both by Strabo and Pliny as the southern limits 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. Nat. 3.11. s. 16; Scylax, § 14,
p. 5.27, p. 11; Pol. 7.19; Mela, 2.4.) But it appears to have been some time
before the appellation 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 ό Ἀδρίας
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 gulph, as in the passages of Herodotus and Hecataeus above cited; but it
seems that Hecataeus himself in another passage (ap. Steph. B. sub voce Ἴστροι)
described the Istrians as dwelling on the Ionian gulf, and Hellanicus (ap.
Dionys. 1.28) spoke of the Padus as flowing into the Ionian gulf. In like manner
Thucydides (1.24) describes Epidamnus as a city on the right hand as you enter
the Ionian gulf. At this period, therefore, 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 ἡ Ἀδρίας in
its more extended sense: and Scylax (who must have been nearly contemporary with
the latter) expressly 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, ἡ Ἀδρίας being familiarly used by Greek writers for the modern Adriatic (Theophr.
4.5. § § 2, 6; Pseud. Aristot. de Mirab. § § >80, 82; Scymn. Ch. 132, 193, &c.;
Pol. 2.17, 3.86, 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 (ἡ Ἀδρίας, or Ἀδριατικὸς κόλπος) became restricted 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 [p. 1.28]Ionian Gulf,
the sea without that entrance, previously known as the Ionian or Sicilian, came
to be called the Adriatic Sea. The beginning of this alteration may already be
found in Strabo, who speaks of the Ionian Gulf as a part of the Adriatic: but it
is found fully developed in Ptolemy, who makes the promontory of Garganus the
limit between the Adriatic Gulf (ὁ Ἀδρίας κόλπος) and the Ionian Sea (τὸ Ἰώνιον
πέλαγος), while he calls the sea which bathes the eastern shores of Bruttium and
Sicily, the Adriatic Sea (τὸ Ἀδριατικὸν πέλαγος): and although the later
geographers, Dionysius Periegetes and Agathemerus, apply the name of the
Adriatic within the same limits as Strabo, the common usage of historians and
other writers under the Roman Empire is in conformity with that of Ptolemy. Thus
we find them almost uniformly speaking of the Ionian Gulf for the lower part of
the modern Adriatic: while the name of the latter had so completely superseded
the original appellation of the Ionian Sea for that which bathes the western
shores of Greece, that Philostratus speaks of the isthmus of Corinth as
separating the Aegaean Sea from the Adriatic. And at a still later period we
find Procopius and Orosius still further extending the appellation as far as
Crete on the one side, and Malta on the other. (Ptol. 3.1. § § 1, 10, 14, 17,
26, 4. § § 1, 8; Dionys. Per. 92--94, 380, 481; Agathemer. 1.3, 2.14; Appian,
App. Syr. 63, B.C. 2.39, 3.9, 5.65; D. C. 41.44, 14.3; Herodian. 8.1; Philostr.
Imagg. 2.16; Paus. 5.25.3, 8.54.3; Hieronym. Ep. 86; Procop. B. G. 1.15, 3.40,
4.6, B. V.. 1.13, 14, 23; Oros. 1.2.) Concerning the various fluctuations and
changes in the application and signification of the name, see Larcher's Notes on
Herodotus (vol. i. p. 157, Eng. transl.), and Letronne (Recherches sur Dicuil.
p. 170--218), who has, however, carried to an extreme extent the distinctions he
attempts to establish. The general form of the Adriatic Sea was well known to
the ancients, at least in the time of Strabo, who correctly describes it as long
and narrow, extending towards the NW., and corresponding in its general
dimensions with the part of Italy to which it is parallel, from the Iapygian
promontory to the mouths of the Padus. He also gives its greatest breadth pretty
correctly at about 1200 stadia, but much overstates its length at 6000 stadia.
Agathemerus, on the contrary, while he agrees with Strabo as to the breadth,
assigns it only 3000 stadia in length, which is as much below the truth, as
Strabo exceeds it. (Strab. ii. p.123, v. p. 211; Agathemer. 14.) The Greeks
appear to have at first regarded the neighbourhood of Adria and the mouths of
the Padus as the head or inmost recess of the gulf, but Strabo and Ptolemy more
justly place its extremity at the gulf near Aquileia and the mouth of the
Tilavemptus (Tagliamento). (Strab. ii. p.123, iv. p. 206; Ptol. 3.1. § § 1, 26.)
The navigation of the Adriatic was much dreaded on account of the frequent and
sudden storms to which it was subject : its evil character on this account is
repeatedly alluded to by Horace. (Carm. 1.3. 15, 33. 15, 2.14. 14, 3.9. 23, &c.)
There is no doubt that the name of the Adriatic was derived from the Etruscan
city of Adria or Atria, near the mouths of the Padus. Livy, Pliny, and Strabo,
all concur in this statement, as well as in extolling the ancient power and
commercial influence of that city [ADRIA No. 1], and it is probably only by a
confusion between the two cities of the same name, that some later writers have
derived the appellation of the sea from Adria in Picenum, which was situated at
some distance from the coast, and is not known to have been a place of any
importance in early times.
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman
Geography (1854) William Smith, LLD, Ed.