ILLYRICUM (Gr. 'IXXvpuc6p, il-loo ree-kon', lit. Illyrian; derivation unknown), a country lying to the northwest of Macedonia, and answering nearly to that which is at present called Dalmatia; by which name indeed the southern part of Illyricum itself was known.
It lies on the east of the gulf of Venice, and is about 48omiLs in length and I2o in breadth. It has Austria and part of Hungary on the north, Mcesia or Servia on the east, and part of Macedonia on the south. Counting from northwest to southeast, it was divided into Sclavonia, Bosnia, Dalmatia, and Albania; but sometimes it was taken in a more extended sense. It is traversed from north west to southeast by the Noric, Carnic, and Julian Alps, constituting the most easterly portion of the great Alpine chain. Along the coast are excellent harbors and numerous islands. The Illyrian race inhabiting the region were wild mountaineers, who were a thorn in the side of their neighbors, the Macedonians; and, when they descended to the seacoast, they so practiced piracy as to bring them into collision with the Romans, who, in B. C. 229, oegan to conquer them, and finally made Illyricum, or Illyria, a province of the empire. It was to
Illyricum that St. Paul informs Timothy that Titus had gone (2 Tim. iv :to). Paul himself preached the Gospel in Illyricum, which was at that time a province of the Roman Empire (Rom. xv:r9). (Cramer, Ancient Greece; Smith, Diet. of Class. Geog.) feme', teraphim). Image is often taken for a statue, figure, or idol.
The Book of Wisdom, speaking of the causes of idolatry, says that a father, afflicted for the death of his son, made an itnage of him, to which he paid divine honors. We read (Rev. xiii 15) that God permitted the beast to seduce men, whom it commanded to make an image of the beast, which became living and animated; and that all who refused to adore it were put to d,eath. The images mentioned in Lev. xxvi :3o; Is. xxvii :9, were, according to rabbi Solomon, idols exposed to the sun, on the tops of houses. Abenezra says they were portable chapels or temples, in the form of chariots, in honor of the sun. (See hot.)