EPIDAURUS
EPIDAURUS (
Ἐπίδαυρος,
Ptol. 2.16.4, Peut. Tab.; Epidaurum,
Plin. Nat. 3.22, Geog. Rav.:
Ragusa-Vecchia; Illyric,
Zaptal), a maritime city of Illyricum, of which no notice occurs till the civil war between Pompeius and Caesar, when having declared in favour of the latter, it was besieged by M. Octavius.
The opportune arrival of Vatinius relieved it. (Hirt.
B. Alex. 44, 45.) Under the Romans it became a colony (Plin.
l.c.); and, as in the cities of the same name in Peloponnesus, Asclepius was the principal deity of the Illyrian town. Constantianus, acting for Justinian in the Gothic War, occupied Epidaurus with his fleet. (Procop.
B. G. 1.7; Le Beau,
Bas Empire, vol. viii. p. 335.)
It was afterwards destroyed, but there is some uncertainty as to the date of that event: it appears that the fugitives established themselves at Rausium, which in time was altered into
Ragusa. (Const. Porph.
de Adm. Imp. 29.)
Ragusa-Vecchia no longer contains any remains of Epidaurus, and all memorials of its site are confined to inscriptions, fragments of walls, coins, and other things found by excavation. (Wilkinson,
Dalmatia and Montenegro, vol. i. p. 373; Neigebaur,
Die Sudslaven, p. 82; Schafarik,
Slav. Alt. vol. ii. p. 272; Engel,
Gesch. von Ragusa, p. 44.)
[
E.B.J]
