ADRIANOPLE ("Hadrian's city”, Tur key: its third city in size, next after Constan tinople and Salonica; 137 miles west northwest of Constantinople, connected by rail; near the western end of the great Thracian coast-plain where it rises to the Rhodope mountains; at the confluence of the large Martiza (ancient Hebrus) which drains the centre of South Bulgaria, the Tunja from the north, and the Arda from the west, all navigable. This posi tion and the convergence of several trade routes have made it from very old times a place of great importance. It was an antique Thra cian city, rebuilt by the Emperor Hadrian, seized by the Turks under Amurath (Murad) I in 1361, and the residence of the Sultans thence till the capture of Constantinople in 1453. Since the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78 and the separation of Bulgaria, it has lost nearly half its population and a large part of its trade. The old wall that once surrounded it, now existent only in a few fragments, has been re placed by a circle of modern forts. It has a palace and two fine bazaars, besides schools and mosques. Pop. about 83,000, half Turks and the remainder Bulgarians, Greeks, Arme nians and Jews.
It has great historic interest as the scene of four events of the first importance. (1) The battle of Adrianople, 9 Aug. 378, A.D., the most tremendous disaster to the Roman arms since Cannw, and incomparably greater in permanent effects. The Goths, whose head chief was Friti gern,— a man of superior genius and honorable character,— were being crowded southward by the great movement of the Huns which culmi nated in Attila's occupancy of all central Europe three generations later, and asked leave to set tle in the lands south of the Danube they had ravaged into semi-desolation. This was granted on condition that they came unarmed and left the children of the leading families in Roman hands as hostages; but when the Goths com plied, the imperial officers, who were to supply them with food, forced them to pay famine ,prices for it, and sold or kept many of the girls for concubines. The enraged Goths, in return,
carried fire, sword and plunder far down into Thrace; driven back for a time, they returned in the spring of 378, reinforced by Huns and Alans, and their vanguard came near Con stantinople. The Emperor Valens was an in competent but ambitious man. Jealous of his brilliant nephew, Gratian, who had just won a great victory over the Western barbarians, and eager to fight before Gratian could join him and have the credit of a fresh victory, he made a long march on a sultry day and attacked the Goths with his fatigued troops. The Alan and Sarmatian cavalry surrounded and hemmed in the Roman infantry, like Hannibal at Canna, till they could not use their weapons; thousands were driven into a marsh; the Roman army was practically exterminated; Valens was never again seen alive, and the Goths obtained permanent possession of the broad plains south of the Danube. (2) The Treaty of Adrianople, 1829. In the Russo-Turkish war of 1828-29, Diebitsch passed the Balkans, advanced on Con stantinople, and halting at Adrianople made the demands of a conqueror, and the panic-stricken Turks acceded to everything. Russia received the northeast coast of the Black Sea, and all rights over the Caucasus tribes, the district of Akhaltsikh, and the protectorate over Molda via and Wallachia (now Rumania); and Tur key recognized the independence of Greece. (3) The Treaty of San Stefano (q.v.), after the capture of Osman's army defending Shipka Pass in the war of 1877-78. (4) During the war of 1912-13, Adrianople after a siege of five months capitulated and was ceded to the Bulgarians 30 May 1913 by the Treaty of Lon don. The Turks reoccupied the city on 20 July 1913, and the reoccupation was confirmed 29 Sept. 1913, by the Treaty of Constantinople. From 1914, in the European War, Adrianople suffered from the ravages of enemy warplanes. See WAR, EUROPEAN.