Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/52

 36 ILLYRICUM. Inferior, Moesia Superior, Bloesia Inferior, Dacia, and Thrace. This division continued till the time of Constantine, who severed from it Lower lloesia and Thrace, but added to it ]Iacedonia, Thessaly, Achaia, Old and New Epirus, Praevalitana, and Crete. At this period it was one of the four great divisions of the Roman empire under a " Praefectus Praetorio," and it is in this signification that it is used by the later writers, such as Sextus Rufus, the " Auctor Notitiae Dignitatum Imperii," Zosimus, Jornandes, and others. At the final division of the Roman em- pire, the so-called " Illyricum Orientale," containing the provinces of Macedonia, Thessaly, Epirus, Hellas, New Epirus, Crete, and Praevalitana, was incorporated with the Lower Empire; while "Illyricum Occi- dentale " was united with Rome, and embraced No- ricuni, Pannonia, Dalmatia, Savia, and Valeria Ripensis. A. Illyris Barbara or Romana, was separated from Istria by the small river Arsia (.4?-sa), and bounded S. and E. by the Drilo, and on the N. by the Savus ; consequently it is represented now by part of Croatia, all Dalmatia, the Herzegovina, Monte-Negro, nearly all Bosnia, and part oi Albania. Illyris Ramana was divided into three districts, the northern of which was Iapydia, extending S. as far as the Tedanius {Zermai/na) ; the strip of land ex- tending fi-om the Arsia to the Titius (Z« Kerka') was called Liburnia, or the whole of the north of what was once Venetian Dalmatia; the territory of the Dalmatak was at first comprehended between the Naro and the Tilurus or Nestus: it then ex- tended to the Titius. A list of the towns will be found under the several heads of Iapydia, Li- burnia, and Dalmatia. B. Illyris Graeca, which was called in later times Epirus Nova, extended from the river Drilo to the SE., up to the Ceraunian mountains, which separated it from Epirus Proper. On the X. it was bounded by the Roman Illyricum and Mount Scor- dus, on the W. by the Ionian sea, on the S. by Epirus, and on the E. by iIacedonia; comprehending, there- fore, nearly the whole of modern Albania. Next to the frontier of Chaonia is the small tovm of Aman- TiA, and the people of the Amantians and Bi;l- LioNES. They are followed by the Taulantii, who occupied the country N. of the Aous — the great river of S. Macedonia, which rises in Jlount Lacmon, and discharges itself into the Adriatic — as far as Epidamnus. The chief towns of this countiy were Apollonia, and Epidamnus or Dykrha- CHIUM. In the interior, near the Macedonian fron- tier, there is a considerable lake, Lacus Lyciinitis, from which the Drilo issues. Ever since the middle ages there has existed in this part the town of Achrida, which has been supposed to be the ancient L^'CHNiDUS, and was the capital of the Bulgarian empire, when it extended from the Euxine as far as the interior of Aetolia, and comprised S. Illyricum, Epirus, Acarnania, Aetolia, and a part of Thessaly. During the Roman period the Dassaretae dwelt there ; the neighbouring country was occupied by the Autari.tae, who are said to have been driven from their country in the time of Cassander, when they removed as fugitives with their women and children into Macedonia. The Ardiaei and Par- THim dwelt N. of the Autariatae, though not at the same time, but only during the Roman period. ScoDRA (Scutari), in later times the capital of Praevalitana, was unknown during the flourishing period of Grecian history, and more properly belongs ILLYRICUM. to Roman Illyricum; as Lissus, which was situated at the mouth of the Drilo, was fixed ujxm by the Romans as the border town of the Ulyrians in the S., beyond which they were not allowed to sail with their privateers. Internal communication iu this Illyricum was kept up by the Via Candavia or Egxatia, the great Hue which connected Italy and the East — Rome, Constantinople, and Jerusalem. A road of such importance, as Colonel Leake re- marks (^North. Greece, vol. iii. p. 311), and on which the distance had been marked with mile- stones soon after the Roman conquest of Macedonia, we may believe to have been kept in the best order as long as Rome was the centre of a vigorous au- thority ; but it probably shared the fate of many other great establishments in the decline of the empire, and especially when it became as much the concern of the Byzantine as of the Roman govern- ment. This fact accounts for the discrepancies iu the Itineraries ; for though Lychnidus, Heracleia, and Edessa, still continued, as on the Candavian Way described by Polybius {ap. Strab. vii. pp. 322, 323), to be the three principal points between Dyr- rhachinm and Thessalonica (nature, in fact, having strongly dra^vn that line in the valley of the Ge- nusus), there appears to have been a choice of routes over the ridges which contained the boundaries of Illyricum and Macedonia. By comparing the An- tonine Itinerary, the Peutingerian Table, and the Jerusalem Itinerary, the following account of stations in Illyricum is obtained: — Dyrrhachium or Apollonia. Ciodiana - - Shimbi. Scampae - ~ Elbassan. Trajectus Genusi _ - Stumbi river. Ad Dianam . >i Candavia _ ■ }j Tres Tabernae - Puns SeiTilii et Claudanum - TJieDrinatS Patrae - Lychnidus - _ - Ahridha. Brucida - - Prespa. Scirtiana - - - » Castra - - - „ Nicaea - - - „ Heracleia - - - « 3. Physical Geography. — The lllyrian range of mountains, which traverses Dalmatia under the name of Mount Prolog, and partly under other names (Jlons Albius, Bebius), branches off in Carniola from the Julian Alps, and then, at a considerable distance from the sea, stretches towards Venetia, approaches the sea beyond Aquileia near Trieste, and forms Istria. After passing through Istria as a lofty mountain, though not reaching the snow Hue, and tra.ers g Dalmatia, which it separates from Bosnia, it extends into Albania. It is a limestone range, and, like most mountains belonging to that form- ation, much broken up; hence the bold and pic- turesque coast runs out into many promontories, and is flanked by numerous islands. These islands appear to have originated on the breaking up of the lower grounds by some violent action, leaving their limestone summits above water. From the salient position of the promontory ternii- nating in Punta delta Planca, they are divided into two distinct groups, which the Greek geographers called Absyrtides and Liburnides. They trend NV. and SE., greatly longer than broad, and form various fine chani.els, called " canale," and named from the nearest adjacent island : these being bold,