Adriatic Sea: Encyclopedia II - Adriatic Sea - Name and etymology

Adriatic Sea - Name and etymology

The name has existed since the antiquity; in Latin it was Mare Hadriaticum. In modern languages, it is Mare Adriatico in Italian, Deti Adriatik in Albanian, Jadransko morje in Slovenian, and Jadransko more in Croatian, Serbian and Bosnian.

The name, derived from the town of Adria (or Hadria), belonged originally only to 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.

But even then the Adriatic in the narrower sense only extended as far as the Mons Garganus, 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 East of Italy, a major tourist attraction. It was used by the ancient Romans to transport objects (including animals and slaves) to Ostia (the Roman port). These objects were used in various places in Rome.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Name and etymology", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki