ADRIA ā’ drĭ ə (̓Αδρίας ̔Αδρίας [WH]), Adria (KJV), sea of Adria (ASV, RSV). The entire body of water lying between Italia on the W and Dalmatia, Macedonia and Achaia on the E and extending into the central Mediterranean to include the waters between Crete and Malta where Paul’s ship encountered the storm on the voyage to Rome (Acts 27:27).

The name Adria appears to be derived from Atria, an important ancient commercial town situated near the mouth of the river Po in northern Italy (Livy, v. 33; Strabo v. 1; Pliny, NH, iii. 120). Livy and others describe the town as Tuscan. Justin (xx. 1. 9), on the other hand, says the town was of Gr. origin, a suggestion seemingly supported by the discovery of an abundance of Gr. vases of a type not found elsewhere in this particular district of Italy.

In earliest times, Adria referred only to the inner expanse of water near the outflow of the Po while the more southerly expanse was designated the Ionian Sea. These terms, however, soon came to be used either interchangeably or to designate respectively the inner and outer basins of the one body of water considered as a whole, and, in fact, the term Adria by itself could be used also to designate this whole (Strabo ii. 123, vii. 187).

By a further extension, Adria came to refer to the entire expanse of water from the Po into the central Mediterranean. Thus Ptolemy, the 2nd cent. scientist and geographer, describes the Adria as being E of Sicily (iii. 4), S of Achaia (iii. 14), W of Crete (iii. 15), and W and S of the Peloponnesus (iii. 16). The record Josephus gives of his rescue from the Adria by a ship of Cyrene supports this use of the term (Life, iii. 15).

Bibliography J. Smith, Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul (1880⁴); W. P. Dickson, “Adria,” HDB (1908), 43, 44; W. Burridge, Seeking the Site of St. Paul’s Shipwreck (1952).