EPIDAMNUS or DYRRHACHIUM. The latter name was, according to tradition, adopted by the Romans to avoid the ominous meaning of the former, _quasi in damnum ituri_, in case of the senate ordering the legions to cross over to it. I imagine that, if the Romans had felt the necessity of changing the name, they would have substituted a syllable, as they did in changing Maleventum into Beneventum; but they would not have completely altered it. In Thucydides and the other Attic writers, the place is always called simply Epidamnus, but the native name must have been Dyrrhachium, for it bears this name on innumerable non-Roman coins. Epidamnus was the _causa contingens_ of the Peloponnesian war; it usually happens, that a thing, when called forth by the force of circumstances, must in the end come to pass, and this town only lent its name as the occasion. This is beautifully expressed by Polybius where he explains the true cause of the Punic wars and their apparent occasion. Epidamnus was likewise taken by the Romans under their protection, and surrendered to them, after having previously been compelled to acknowledge the supremacy of the Illyrian kings. I have already mentioned that a vast number of coins are found there. It is a well-known observation, that about twenty years ago a person travelling through the Rhenish provinces, found French crowns to be the current coin; and in like manner Illyrian quinarii (half-drachmae) were the current coin at Rome for a long time; according to Pliny, they had been introduced at Rome as merchandise, and afterwards _victoriatae_ were substituted for them. But Pliny, as is so often the case with him, takes the matter rather lightly and hastily. The Illyrian half-drachmae were probably somewhat inferior to the double sestertii of the Romans, and at the same time were convenient as a simple coin. But the Romans very rationally now made a similar coin, and thereby got completely rid of the Illyrian. Those Illyrian coins also have the name of a magistrate, which explains a statement of Aristotle, who says that Epidamnus contrary to the custom of other Greek towns, had a single dictator or praetor. During the middle ages, in the time of the Comneni and the Norman kings, Dyrrhachium acted a very prominent part, but at present it is decayed, though it still possesses the advantages of its happy situation on a narrow isthmus, which almost forms a promontory.