Adria, or Adriatic Sea

A'dria, or Adriatic Sea (Α᾿δρίας, Ac 27:27), the modern Gulf of Venice (Forbiger, Alte Geogr. 2, 16, sq.). It derives its name from the city Adria, in Cisalpine Gaul, on the river Po, now called Atri. The name Adriatic is now confined to the gulf lying between Italy on one side and the coasts of Dalmatia and Albania on the other (comp. Pliny, 3:16, 29). But in Paul's time it extended to all that part of the Mediterranean between Crete and Sicily (Smith's Dict. of Class. Geogr. s.v.). Thus Ptolemy (3, 16) says that Sicily was bounded on the east by the Adriatic, and that Crete was bounded by the Adriatic on the west; and Strabo (2, p. 185; 7, p. 488) says that the Ionian Gulf was a part of what was in his time called the Adriatic Sea (comp. Eustath. ad Dionys. Perieg. p. 103, 168, ed. Bernhardy; Josephus, Life, 3). This obviates the necessity of finding the island of Melita (q.v.), on which Paul was shipwrecked, in the present Adriatic gulf (Hackett's Comment. in loc.) SEE SHIPWRECK. On the modern navigation, see M'Culloch's Gazetteer, s.v.