EPIDAMNUS, afterwards called by the Romans Dyrrhachium, a city of Illyria, on the coast of the Adriatic, founded by a colony from the island Corcyra, under the command of Phalius, a native of Corinth, 629 years B. c. according to Eusebius. The lofty and precipitous peninsula on which it was built seems to have been called Dyrrhachium; and as the last syllable of Epidamnus was significant of ill omen to the Romans, that superstitious people [7:9:310] were probably induced to change it for the name applied by the Greeks to the peninsula. There seems no good reason to believe that the site of the more modern town was different from that of the ancient. Epidamnus became at a very early period of considerable importance: its intimate connection with the rich republics of Corcyra and Corinth excited in its citizens a spirit of commercial enterprise; and it was not long before they rivalled the most celebrated of the cities of Greece in the extent of their trade and the magnitude of their undertakings. Epidamnus continued to prosper until it became a prey to domestic feuds and civil broils. Its constitution was originally aristocratic; a single magistrate formed the head of the administration; and the phylarchs (^oλαgχα∕) composed a species of council. These phylarchs were afterwards replaced by a senate (βουλή) chosen on democratic principles. It was the contest between the popular party at Epidamnus and the nobles that produced the Peloponnesian war. Corcyra refused to interfere, and the Epidamnians proceeded to make their application to the Corinthians, who felt nowise disinclined to increase their own power at the expense of the Corcyreans. The aid furnished by Corinth soon re-established order and tranquillity; but the Corcyreans, at no time on good terms with that city, felt highly indignant that it should have interfered with what they considered as their own peculiar property. They sent orders to the Epidamnians to receive back the nobles whom they had banished, and to cause the Corinthians to evacuate the city; but as no attention was paid to the demand, they equipped a fleet, and, in conjunction with a body of Illyrians, besieged the town, which, in a few days, was compelled to surrender. This was the beginning of the Peloponnesian war. Of the subsequent history of Epidamnus we know but little until we find it under the protection of the Romans, to whom it adhered faithfully, both in the Illyrian and Macedonian wars.

At a later period it became the scene of contest between Pompey and Caesar; but for a detailed account of these transactions we must refer the reader to the Commentaries of Caesar himself. From this time it became much frequented by the Romans, from being situated at the commencement of the great Egnatian Road, which led through Macedonia to the provinces of the east. Here it was that Cicero landed on his banishment from Italy; and he speaks in high terms of commendation of the kind treatment which he received from its inhabitants. At the end of the fourth century Dyrrhachium became the capital of the newly established province of Epirus Nova; and it is now called I)urazzo, which is an insignificant village, rendered unhealthy by its vicinity to marshes.