Hadriaticum Mare

HADRIA´TICUM MARE [ADRIATICUM 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).