Hadrianopolis
HADRIANO´POLIS (Ἁδριανούπολις).
1.(Adrianople or Edrene), the most important of the many towns founded by the emperor Hadrian, was situated in Thrace, at the point where the river Tonzus joins the Hebrus, and where the latter river, having been fed in its upper course by numerous tributaries, becomes navigable. From Ammianus Marcellinus (Ammian. 14.11, 27.4) it would appear that Hadrianopolis was not an entirely new town, but that there had existed before on the same spot a place called Uscudama, which is mentioned also by Eutropius (Eutrop. 6.8). But as Uscudama is not noticed by earlier writers, some modern critics have inferred that Marcellinus was mistaken, and that Uscudama was situated in another part of the country. Such criticism, however, is quite arbitrary, and ought not to be listened to. At one time Hadrianopolis was designated by the name of Orestias or Odrysus (Lamprid. Heliog. 7; Nicet. pp. 360, 830; Aposp. Geog. ap. Hudson, 4. p. 42); but this name seems afterwards to have been dropped. The country around Hadrianople was very fertile, and the site altogether very fortunate, in consequence of which its inhabitants soon rose to a high degree of prosperity. They carried on extensive commerce and were distinguished for their manufactures, especially of arms. The city was strongly fortified, and had to sustain a siege by the Goths in A.D. 378, on which occasion the workmen in the manufactories of arms formed a distinct corps. Next to Constantinople, Hadrianopolis was the first city of the Eastern empire, and this rank it maintained throughout the middle ages; the Byzantine emperors, as well as the Turkish sultans, often resided at Hadrianopolis. (Spart. Hadr. 20; Ammian. 31.6, 12, 15; It. Ant. 137, 175,322; Procop. B. G. 3.40; Ann. Comn. 10. p. 277; Zosim. 2.22; Cedren. ii. pp. 184, 284, 302, 454; Hierocl. p. 635; Nicet. p. 830.) COIN OF HADRIANOPOLIS IN THRACE.
COIN OF HADRIANOPOLIS IN THRACE.A town built by Hadrian in the northern part of Bithynia, which was little known in consequence of its distance from the high roads, for which reason the place is not noticed in the Itineraries. (Hierocl. p. 695; Novell. 29; Concil. Nicean. 2. p. 52.) We possess coins of this town from the time of Hadrian to the reign of Philip. (Sestini, p. 68.) Leake (Asia Min. p. 309) identifies it with the Turkish town Boli near the Filbas.
3.A town built by the emperor Hadrian in Phrygia, between Philomelium and Tyriaeum. (Hierocl. p. 672; Concil. Chalced. p. 670; Concil. Const. 2. p. 241.) Kiepert is inclined to identify this town with the ruins of Arkuttchan. [L.S]
HADRIANO´POLIS (Αδσιανούπολις), a town of Illyricum, founded by Hadrian, and situated on the road from Apollonia to Nicopolis, about midway between those two towns. (Pent. Tab. ) It was repaired by Justinian, and called JUSTINOPOLIS (Procop. de Aed. 4.1), and became one of the cities of the government of old Epeirus and the see of a bishop (Hierocles). The small theatre and other vestiges in the plain below Libókhovo mark the position of this city. Ten or twelve miles lower down the river are the ruins of a fortress or small town of the Byzantine age, called Drynópoli, which name has been taken for a corruption of the old city, though it really is derived from the river on which the place is situated, still called Dhrýno or Drýno. These remains are of a later age than the theatre, which belongs to Paganism.
The probability is, that when Hadrianopolis fell in ruins Drynopolis was built on a different site, and became the see of the bishop. (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. 1. p. 76.)
[E.B.J](Ἁδριανόπολις). The modern Adrianople. A town in Thrace, on the right bank of the Hebrus, situated in an extensive plain, founded by the emperor Hadrian. In the Middle Ages it ranked second to Constantinople alone.