Adria

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

(ὁ Ἀδρίας [Westcott-Hort’s Greek TestamentἈδρίας], ‘the Adrias,’ Revised Version‘the [sea of] Adria’)

The name was derived from the important Tuscan town of Atria, near the mouths of the Padus, and was originally (Herod. vi. 127, vii. 20, ix. 92) confined to the northern part of the gulf now called the Adriatic, the lower part of which was known as the ‘Ionian Sea.’ In later times the name ‘Adria’ was applied to the whole basin between Italy and Illyria, while the ‘Ionian Sea’ came to mean the outer basin, south of the Strait of Otranto. Strabo, in the beginning of our era, says: ‘The mouth (strait) is common to both; but this difference is to be observed, that the name “Ionian” is applied to the first part of the gulf only, and “Adriatic” to the interior sea up to the farthest end’ (vii. v. 9). Strabo, however, indicates a wider extension of the meaning by adding that ‘the name “Adrias” is now applied to the whole sea,’ so that, as he says elsewhere, ‘the Ionian Gulf forms part of what we now call “Adrias” ’ (ii. v. 20). Finally, in popular usage, which is followed by St. Luke ( Acts 27:27), the term ‘Adria’ was still further extended to signify the whole expanse between Crete and Sicily.

This is confirmed by Ptolemy, who wrote about the middle of the 2nd cent. a.d. ‘With the accuracy of a geographer, he distinguishes the Gulf of Adria from the Sea of Adria; thus, in enumerating the boundaries of Italy, he tells us that it is bounded on one side by the shores of the Gulf of Adria, and on the south by the shores of the Adria (iii. 1); and that Sicily is hounded on the east by the Sea of Adria (4). He further informs us that Italy is bounded on the south by the Adriatic Sea (14), that the Peloponnesus is bounded on the west and south by the Adriatic Sea (16), and that Crete is bounded on the west by the Adriatic Sea (17)’ (Smith, Vayage and Shipwreck of St. Paul 4, 163f.).

The usage current in the first and second centuries is similarly reflected by Pausanias, who speaks of Alpheus flowing under Adria from Greece to Ortygia in Syracuse (viii. 54. 2), and of the Straits of Messina as communicating with the Adriatic and the Tyrrhenian Sea (v. 25. 3). Procopius ( Bel. Vand . i. 14) makes the islands of Gaulos and Melita ( Gozo and Malta ) the boundary between the Adriatic; and the Tyrrhenian Sea. The meaning of the term ‘Adria’ was the debatable point of the once famous controvert as to whether St. Paul suffered shipwreck on the Illyrian or the Sicilian Melita, i.e. on Meleda or Malta (see Melita). His ship was ‘driven through Adria’ (διαφερομένων ἡμῶν ἐν τῷ Ἀδρίᾳ,  Acts 27:27); perhaps not ‘driven to and fro in the sea of Adria’ (Revised Version) (unless St. Luke made a landsman’s mistake), but slowly carried forward in one direction, for probably ‘she had storm sails set, and was on the starboard tack, which was the only course by which she could avoid falling into the Syrtis’ (Smith, op. cit. 114). An interesting parallel to St. Paul’s experience is found in the life of Josephus, who relays that his ship foundered in the midst of the same sea (κατὰ μέσον τὸν Ἀδρίαν), and that he and some companions, saving themselves by swimming, were picked up by a vessel sailing from Cyrene to Puteoli ( Vit . 3).

Literature.-J. Smith, The Voyaye and Shipwreck of St. Paul 4, 1880, p. 162ff.; W. M. Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen , 1895, p. 334.

James Strahan.

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

ADRIA (more correctly Hadria ). The name was at first confined to the northern part of what we call the Adriatic Sea, or to a stretch of land near that, and was derived from a once important Etruscan city, Atria, situated at the mouth of the Po. The rest of what we call the Adriatic Sea appears to have been at that time included in the term Ionian Sea or Ionian Gulf. It was only later, with the growth of the Syracusan colonies on the coasts of Italy and Illyria, that the name ‘Hadria’ came to include the whole Adriatic, and even then, at first, it was the practice to call the southernmost part the Ionian Sea. This reduction of the Ionian Sea to a part of Hadria led, when the name ‘Ionian Sea’ was transferred to the Sicilian Sea in the W. of Greece, to a misuse of the term ‘Hadria.’ It was extended to include the Tarentine Gulf, the Sicilian Sea, the Corinthian Gulf, and even the waters between Crete and Malta, as in   Acts 27:27 .

A. Souter.

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

The gulf bounded on the E. by Dalmatia and Albania, and on the W. by Italy. It was often however understood in a wider sense, as by Paul's almost contemporary geographer, Ptolemy, namely, the Mare Superum, including the Ionian sea, between Sicily on the W., and Greece and Crete on the E., and Africa on the S., the "Syrtic basin" ( Acts 27:17). So that the Melita of Acts 28 need not be looked for in the present Adriatic gulf, but may be identified with Malta. Adria, a town near the Po, gave its name. Malta marks the division between the Adriatic and Tyrrhenian (Mare Inferum) sea; the Corinthian isthmus divides the AEgean from the Adriatic.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

The Adriatic Sea, wherein Paul was 'driven up and down' and afterwards shipwrecked.  Acts 27:27 . The term 'Adriatic' is now confined to the sea that lies between Italy and Dalmatia and Albania; but formerly it had a wider signification and included that part of the Mediterranean which was bounded by Sicily, Italy, Greece and Africa. The difference is of importance inasmuch as Malta (Melita) where Paul was shipwrecked is not within the present Adriatic Sea, though it is within that which was formerly called so. Attention to this would have prevented objectors calling in question Paul's being shipwrecked at Malta.

Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary

This name, which occurs in  Acts 27:27 , is now confined to the gulf lying between Italy on the one side, and the coasts of Dalmatia and Albania on the other. But in St. Paul's time it was extended to all that portion of the Mediterranean between Crete and Sicily. Thus Ptolemy says that Sicily was bounded on the east by the Adriatic, and Crete in a similar manner on the west; and Strabo says that the Ionian Gulf was a part of what, in his time, was called the Adriatic Sea.

Smith's Bible Dictionary

A'dria. More properly A'Drias , the Adriatic Sea.  Acts 27:27. The word seems to have been derived from the town of Adria , near the Po. In Paul's time it included the whole sea between Greece and Italy, reaching south from Crete to Sicily. See Melita .

People's Dictionary of the Bible

Adria ( Â'Dri-Ah ),  Acts 27:27, is now the gulf which lies between Italy on one side, and the coast of Dalmatia on the other. It is called the Gulf of Venice. In the apostle's time it is supposed to have denoted the whole breadth of the Mediterranean sea, from Crete to Sicily.

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

In  Acts 27:27 . The Adriatic Sea. This term now denotes only the Gulf of Venice; but in St. Paul's time it included the whole sea lying between Italy and Greece, and extending on the south from Crete to Sicily, within which the island of Malta or Melita lies. So Ptolemy and Strabo.

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Acts 27:27 Acts 27:16 Acts 28:1

Easton's Bible Dictionary

 Acts 27:27 Mare Superum_ of the Romans, as distinguished from the

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

ā´dri - a (Westcott-Hort: ὁ Ἁδρίας , ho Hadrı́as or ho Adrı́as ): In Greek Adrias (Polybios i.2.4), Adriatike Thalassa (Strabo iv.204), and Adriatikon Pelagos (Ptolemy iii.15.2), and in Latin Adriaticum mare (Livy xl.57.7), Adrianum mare (Cicero in Pisonem 38), Adriaticus sinus (Livy x.2.4), and Mare superurn (Cicero ad Att . 9.5.1). The Adriatic Sea is a name derived from the old Etruscan city Atria, situated near the mouth of the Po (Livy v.33.7; Strabo v.214). At first the name Adria was only applied to the most northern part of the sea. But after the development of the Syracusan colonies on the Italian and Illyrian coasts the application of the term was gradually extended southward, so as to reach Mons Garganus (the Abruzzi), and later the Strait of Hydruntum (Ptolemy iii.1.1; Polybios vii.19.2). But finally the name embraced the Ionian Sea as well, and we find it employed to denote the Gulf of Tarentum (Servius Aen xi.540), the Sicilian Sea (Pausanias v. 25), and even the waters between Crete and Malta (Orosius i.2.90). Procopius considers Malta as lying at the western extremity of the Adriatic Sea (i.14). After leaving Crete the vessel in which the apostle Paul was sailing under military escort was "driven to and fro in the sea of Adria" fourteen days (  Acts 27:27 ) before it approached the shore of Malta. We may compare this with the shipwreck of Josephus in "the middle of the Adria" where he was picked up by a ship sailing from Cyrene to Puteoli (Josephus, Vita , 3).