On Toponyms and Descriptions of Warfare in the Eastern Adriatic in Lucanus’s Pharsalia – Commentaries on Lucanus’s Pharsalia (De Bello Civili) IV, 402-581

Sa？etak In his epic Pharsalia, great Roman poet Lucanus describes Caesar’s fight against Pompey during the civil war. The description is poetic, not historical. He describes interesting, particularly important and heroic events that indicate to a high level of military and human virtues. One of those events took place in Dalmatia (in the Eastern Adriatic) near the island of Curicta – today Krk (Bellum Civile, also known as Pharsalia IV, 402-581). The following verses (IV, 404-405) in particular captured the attention of historians researching the events having taken place in the Antiquity on the Eastern coast: Qua maris Hadriaci longas ferit unda Salonas/et tepidum in molles Zephyros excurrit Iader. The so far given opinions regarding the interpretation of these verses are not satisfying; thus, these two Lucanus’s verses mentioning Salona and Iader had to be taken under closer examination. The research focuses on the terms longae Salonae and excurrit Iader. The adjective longae should be interpreted as spacious, not long, since this suits better the then geo-cultural situation in and around this Dalmatian city. The second (very broad) meaning of this word relates to spaciousness. On the other hand, Lucanus could not have used the term tepidus to describe the cold and fast river Salon (today Jadro). Since the times of Thomas the Archdeacon (13th ct.), the opinion had prevailed that Iader was the name for a small river near Salona named Salon. Since then, the river has been officially called Jadro. Thomas the Archdeacon’s recent critical edition shows that this historian had either changed or miswritten the word tepidus in order for it to better suit the term trepidus, which means quivering. The word trepidus occurs in Thomas’s autograph only. He had obviously realized that this water was not mild but rather cold, clear and fast; and thus, he preferred the term trepidus. This means that Thomas had corrected Lucanus. Thomas’s other editions bring the word in its original form as written by Lucanus (tepidus); this means that scribes transcribing Thomas’s work brought the word back into its original form. Hence, the second verse refers to the peninsular in the antique city of Zadar (Iader); that is to say, the expressions tepidus and excurrit in molles Zephyros suit better the land that is mild (in winter) yet chilled by landward breeze. However, neither the inhabitants of Iader nor Liburnians are meant in all cases by Jadestinians who are mentioned on three inscriptions; some other ethnic name, i.e. toponym (which originates from a hydronym) should be