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PASCAL ARNAUD

University Lyon 2 and Institut Universitaire de France

The Adriatic Sea, which today refers to the long, narrow gulf between the Italian and Balkan peninsulas, is a name whose geographical application varied much through time. In antiquity, it eventually included the area south of the Adriatic, between Greece and SICILY, often referred to as the IONIAN GULF. This large extension is likely the one the word already had in ATHENS in 325/4 BCE, when the Athenians sent a naval force in support of an apoikia “in the Adria,” when this was under threat from the Latins (called TYRRHENIANS).

When Herodotus uses the term, he seems to have in mind the more restricted area of today’s Adriatic Sea, especially its northern edge. “Adria(s)” is the country where the ENETI (Veneti) dwell (5.9.2) and whence goods coming from the HYPERBOREANS are sent southwards to DODONA (4.33). Some therefore think that Adrias (ὁ Ἀδρίης) would be the name of the northern Adriatic, the region around Atria, while the Ionian Gulf would refer to the southern Adriatic. But if so, it is a bit more difficult to understand the well‐known passage where the Phocaeans are said to have uncovered “the Adriatic and Tyrrhenia and IBERIA and TARTESSUS” (1.163.1). The Adriatic is not on the route to the West, but the strait of Otranto is. The presence of the Phocaeans in the Adriatic Sea itself is a vexed question, and Herodotus probably meant that the Phocaeans, having sailed the Ionian Gulf, had uncovered the existence of the Adriatic Sea.

SEE ALSO: Phocaea; Sea; Ships and Sailing; Trade