ADRIA (a'clri-3.), (Gr. • Ar5plas, ad-ree'no, an ancient city of Italy, on the Tartar°. in the state of Venice. It gave name to the Adriatic sea, or the sea of Adria (Acts xxvii:27).
It appears from the narrative of l'aul's voyage just referred to, that, although the name of Adria belonged in a proper sense only to the sea within the Adriatic gulf, it was given in a looser manner to a larger extent, including the Sicilian and Ionian sea. Thus also Ptolemy says (lib. iii, cap. 4), that Sicily was bounded east by the Adriatic, and (cap. 16) that Crete was washed on the west by the Adriatic sea ; and Strabo says (lib. vii) that the Ionian gulf is a part of that which in his time was called the Adriatic sea. (See ADRIATIC SEA. ) ADRIAN (5'dri-an), the fifteenth emperor of Rome. This prince is not mentioned in the New Testament, but some interpreters are of opin ion that he is alluded to in Rev. viii :to, it, where Barchochcbas, the famous Jewish impostor, is thought to be foretold, but without sufficiently good grounds. The Jews having created several disturbances in the reign of Trajan, Adrian sent a colony to Jerusalem, for the purpose of keeping them in subjection, and also built within the walls of the city a temple to Jupiter.
(1) Jewish Mutiny. Not enduring that a strange colony should occupy their city, and introduce a foreign religion, the Jews began to mutiny, about A. D. 134, and Barchochebas, who about the same time made his appearance under the assumed character of the Mcssias, animated them in their rebellion against the Romans. The presence of Adrian, who was at this time in Syria or Egypt, restrained in some measure their proceedings, but after his return to Rome, they fortified several places, and prepared for a vigorous resistance. Their pro ceedings, and the great increase in the numbers of the seditious, induced Adrian to send Tinnius Rufus into Judea.
(2) Defeat. The Roman generals marched against them, and a dreadful slaughter en sued. The Jews fought desperately, and Rufus having been defeated in several con flicts, Adrian sent to his assistance Julius Severus, one of the greatest generals of his age. Severus besieged [tether, or Betheron, where the Jews had entrenched themselves, which he at length took, and put many to the sword. Others were sold as cattle, at the fairs of Nlantre and Gaza ; and the rest were sent into Egypt. being forbidden, under a severe penalty, to return to their own city. Jerome (in Zech. xi:7) applies to this calamity of the Jews the words of Zechariah: "I will feed flock of slaughter." And the IIebrew doctors ap ply Jer. xxxi its: ''A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and hitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children." etc. The Jews purchased with a sum of money the liberty, not of entering Jerusa lem, but only of looking from a distance on it, and going to lament its fall and desolation. This may have been included inChrist's prophecy( Nlatt.xxiv i.
(3) Length of the Wnr. The number of Ro man soldiers and auxiliary troops thaterished in J the course of this war, which lasted, as Jerome and the Rahbins say, three years and a half (nitro nym. in Dan. ix ; Basnage Hist. de, Juifs, tom. ii, page 133), or, as others suppose, only two years. was very great. Dio remarks, that the emperbr, in writing of the termination of the war to the senate, did not use the common form in the be ginning of his letters, "If yott and your children are in good health, I ant glad of it ; I and the army are in good condition ;" in consequence of the great losses he had sustained. (Dio, lib. 69, Page 794.) After this revolt, Adrian finished the building of Jerusalem, and changed its name to :Elia, which see.