in Ancient Geography, a town on the coast of Illyricum, before called Epidamnum, or Epidamnus, an inauspicious name, changed by the Romans to Dyrrachium; a name taken from the peninsula on which it stood. Originally built by the Corcyreans, A Roman colony (Pliny). A town famous in story; its port answered to that of Brundusium, and the passage between between both was very ready and expeditious. It was also a very famous mart for the people living on the Adriatic; and the free admission of strangers contributed much to its increase: A contrast to the conduct of the Apollonians; who, in imitation of the Spartans, discouraged strangers from settling among them.