ADRIANUM (or ADRIATICUM) MARE (anc. geog.), now the gulf of Venice, a large bay in the Mediterranean, between Dalmatia, Sclavonia, Greece, and Italy. It is called by the Greeks, Adria Nautus, and Adria by the Romans, (as Arbiter Adria Notus, Hor.) Cicero calls it Hadrianum Mare; Virgil has Hadriaticas Undas. It is commonly called Mare Adriaticum, without an aspiration; but whether it ought to have one, is a dispute: if the appellation is from Hadria, the town of the Piceni, it must be written Hadriaticum, because the emperor's name, who thence derives his o-
rigin, is on coins and stones Hadrianus; but if from the town in the territory of Venice, as the more ancient, and of which that of the Piceni is a colony, this will justify the common appellation Adriaticum.