EP'IDAU'RUS (Lat., from Gk. 'Eranupos, Epidaurus). A town of ancient Greece, on the Saronie Gulf, in the northeast part of Argolis, situated on a small promontory, in latitude 37° 38' north, longitude 23° I0' east. The early history of Epidaurus is involved in myth, but numerous religious connections with Attica lend probability to the• legend of an original Ionian population. Later, it was a Dorian city. closely connected with, but not subject to, Argos. The greatest prosperity of Epidaurus seems to have been in the early period, when it was a member of the Calaurian Amphietyony, and was said to have controlled ..Egina and colonized Cos, Ca lydnus. and Nisyrus. Its power afterwards de clined, and during the historical period it owed its importance chiefly to the proximity of the celebrated sanctuary of iEseulapius, which at tracted patients from all parts of tho (lreek world. The site of this temple was a :main sur rounded by mountains, about live miles west of the town, still called Menai (the sanctuary).
Epidaurus (modern Greek, Epidhu vrol is now a small village, with scarcely a hundred inhabit ants, employed for the most part in raising vegetables for the Athenian market. The plain surrounding the village is productive and highly cultivated. Here, in .January, 1822, a congress from all parts of Greece assembled, and pro mulgated the constitution, known as the 'Consti tution of Epidaurus.' Consult: Gardiner. New ('ho piers in Greek II istary ( London, 1892) ; Diehl, Exalt rNI011R in ()recce (London, 1893). The detailed descriptions may he found in Pou pi fl u Athens, 1893) ; Defrasse and lishat. Hp id a are (Paris, 1895), magnificently illustrated with conjectural restorations of the principal Cavva dins. To roil' AO- an Ina I v Tirt5clepQ ( Athens,