DAOU'RIA, a country of Asia, partly in the Russian government of Irkutsk, and partly belonging to the Chinese territory of Mantehooria. Its limits are not exactly defined. The Daourian mountains, offsets of the Yablonot mountains, traverse it from n.e. to s.w., and separate it from the region of lake Baikal. The mountains are fertile in minerals.
DAPIUNt, a magnificent grove and sanctuary in ancient times, near Antioch (q.v.). The grove was finely laid out in walks of cypress and bay trees, and as the chief resort of all the dissolute persons in the city, became the scene of the greatest debauchery. In the center, surrounded by the luxuries of nature and art, glorious gardens, fountains, baths, colonnades, stood the temple of Apollo and Diana, which was invested with the privileges of an asylum, and became for centuries a place of heathen pilgrimage. The progress of Christianity gradually revived in the Antioehenes the purer instincts of virtue and decorum, and the grove was finally abandoned. Julian the apostate, in his
vain endeavor to resuscitate the lifeless corpse of paganism, visited D., and made the altars of the temple smoke once more with incense; but on his departure, they were again neglected, until one night the altars and the statues were discovered to be in flames. They were consumed to ashest•and so perished forever the gods of Daphne.
I). owed its origin to Seleucus Nicator. He planted the grove, built the temple, and gave the place a mythological history in connection with the river Pencils and the nymph Daphne, who was here turned into a laurel or bay tree, whence' the grove of D. received its name. Modern travelers are not agreed as to its site. Pococke and Richter decide in favor of about 5 m. from Antioch; while Forbiger and Kinneir consider Babylas the true position.