(ihl lehr' ih cuhm) Place name of uncertain meaning. A district in the Roman Empire between the Danube River and the Adriatic Sea. The Romans divided it into Dalmatia and Panhynonia. It includes modern Yugoslavia and Albania. Illyricum represented the northeastern limits of Paul's missionary work as he wrote the Romans (Romans 15:19 ), though the Bible nowhere mentions his work there. His work in Macedonia was only a few miles away, so he could easily have preached in or sent his associates to Illyricum. This does not mean he had covered all of Illyricum, only that he had introduced the gospel there in the dangerous limits of the empire. Paul had thus completed his missionary ministry of preaching the gospel and planting churches in the eastern end of the empire. Paul was now ready to preach in Rome and the western parts of the Roman Empire (Romans 15:20-24 ).

The region stretching from Italy to Epirus, along the N.E. of the Adriatic. The extreme limit (probably about Dyrrachium) unto which Paul had preacher the gospel, toward Rome, when he wrote the epistle to Romans (Romans 15:19). "Dalmatia" is applied to the same region. Image. (See FORM; IDOL.)

ILLYRICUM . The only Scripture mentionis Romans 15:19 , where St. Paul points to the fact that he had fully preached the good news of the Messiah from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum. Neither geographical term is included in the sense of the Greek, which is that he had done so from the outer edge of Jerusalem, so to speak, round about (through various countries) as far as the border of Illyricum. These provinces in order are Syria, Cilicia, Galatia, Asia, and Macedonia, and a journey through them in succession describes a segment of a rough circle. The provinces Macedonia and Illyricum are conterminous, and the nearest city in Macedonia in which we know St. Paul to have preached is Berœa ( Acts 17:10 ff.). Illyricum is a Latin word, and denotes the Roman province which extended along the Adriatic from Italy and Pannonia on the north to the province Macedonia on the south. A province Illyria had been formed in b.c. 167, and during the succeeding two centuries all accessions of territory in that quarter were incorporated in that province. In a.d. 10 Augustus separated Pannonia from Illyricum, and gave the latter a settled constitution. The government of this important province was difficult, and was entrusted to an ex-consul with the style legatus Augusti pro prætore . The northern half was called Liburnia and the southern Dalmatia (wh. see). The latter term gradually came to indicate the whole province of Illyricum.

A. Souter.

(Ἰλλυρικόν)

This was the name of a Roman province bounded on the W. by the Adriatic, and extending from Pannonia on the N. to Macedonia on the S. Though so near to Italy, it was for long comparatively unknown. Strabo writing about a.d. 20 says: ‘Illyria was formerly neglected, through ignorance perhaps of its fertility; but it was principally avoided on account of the savage manners of the inhabitants, and their piratical habits’ (VII. v. 11). It was subjugated by Tiberius in a.d. 9. When St. Paul contemplated a journey by Rome to Spain, he justified his desire for fresh fields by saying that from Jerusalem and round unto Illyricum (καὶ κύκλῳ μέχρι τοῦ Ἰλλυρικοῦ) he had fully preached the gospel of Christ (Romans 15:19).

Meyer, Gifford, and others (in loco) explain κύκλῳ as the region round Jerusalem, i.e. Judaea , Syria and Arabia. But in order to bear this sense the word would require the article. The meaning is rather that all the countries between Jerusalem and Illyricum-Syria, Cilicia, Galatia, Asia, Macedonia, Achaia-forming a rough aro of a circle, have been evangelized by the Apostle.

The words ‘unto Illyricum’ do not necessarily imply that he had preached within this province. He may be indicating the exterior rather than the interior limit. In his third journey he revisited Macedonia, and ‘having made a missionary progress through those parts’ (διελθὼν δὲ τὰ μέρη ἐκεῖνα) he came to Greece (Acts 20:2). ‘Those parts’ might include the south of Illyricum, but probably meant no more than the west of Macedonia. Strabo (vii. vii. 4), describing the Via Egnatia, which began at Dyrrachium (the modern Durazzo), notes that it traverses a part of Illyria before it enters Macedonia, and that ‘on the left are the Illyrian mountains.’

‘St. Paul would have followed this road as far as Thessalonica, and if pointing Westward he had asked the names of the mountain region and of the peoples inhabiting it, he would have been told that it was “Illyria.” The term therefore is the one which would naturally occur to him as fitted to express the limits of his journey to the West’ (Sanday-Headlam, in loco).

Writing as a Roman citizen to Christians in Rome, St. Paul avoids the ordinary Greek Ἰλλυρίς or Ἰλλυρία, and merely transliterates the Latin provincial term Illyricum. In the second half of the 1st cent. the name Dalmatia (q.v. [Note: quod vide, which see.] ), which had formerly meant the S. part of the province of Illyricum, began to be extended to the whole. For a time Illyricum and Dalmatia were convertible terms. Pliny has both; Suetonius marks the change from the one to the other; and from the Flavian period onward the term regularly used is Dalmatia. St. Paul, keeping pace with Roman usages, employs the new provincial name in a part of 2 Tim. which is generally accepted as genuine (4:10).

St. Jerome and Diocletian were Illyrians. The region now comprises Bosnia, Herzegovina, Montenegro, and N. Albania, and is as wild and unsettled as ever.

‘The eastern coast of the Adriatic is one of those ill-fated portions of the earth which, though placed in immediate contact with civilization, have remained perpetually barbarian’ (T. Arnold, Hist. of Rome, 1838-43, i. 492).

Literature.-T. Mommsen, Hist. of Rome, Eng. translation , 1894, Index, s.v.; Prov. of Rom. Emp.2, 1909, i. 199; articles s.v. in Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols) (Ramsay), Hastings’ Single-vol. Dictionary of the Bible (Souter), and Smith’s DGRG [Note: GRG Dict. of Greek and Roman Geography.] (E. B. James).

J. Strahan.

An extensive region on the east coast of the Adriatic, to which the preaching of Paul extended. Romans 15:19 . It is now nearly all embraced under the name of Dalmatia.

Illyricum (il-lĭr'i-kŭm). A Roman province of southeastern Europe, lying along the eastern coast of the Adriatic, from the boundary of Italy on the north to Epirus on the south, and contiguous to Mœsia and Macedonia on the east. On account of the insurrection of the Dalmatians, b.c. 11. the province was divided, and the northern portion called Dalmatia: the southern portion remained one of the Senate's provinces. Paul preached round about unto Illyricum. Romans 15:19.

Joy; rejoicing

a province lying to the north and north-west of Macedonia, along the eastern coast of the Adriatic Gulf, or Gulf of Venice. It was distinguished into two parts: Liburnia to the north, where is now Croatia, and Dalmatia to the south, which still retains the same name, and to which, as St. Paul informs Timothy, Titus went, 2 Timothy 4:10 . St. Paul says, that he preached the Gospel from Jerusalem round about to Illyricum, Romans 15:19 .

A country of Europe, lying east of the Adriatic sea, north of Epirus, and west of Macedonian. It was anciently divided into Liburnia, now Croatia, on the north, and Dalmatia on the south, which still retains its name. See Romans 15:19 .

A country to the north-west of Macedonia, on the eastern shores of the Adriatic, now almost wholly comprehended in Dalmatia, a name formerly given to the southern part of Illyricum (2 Timothy 4:10 ). It was traversed by Paul in his third missionary journey (Romans 15:19 ). It was the farthest district he had reached in preaching the gospel of Christ. This reference to Illyricum is in harmony with Acts 20:2 , inasmuch as the apostle's journey over the parts of Macedonia would bring him to the borders of Illyricum.