EPIDAURO. – A locality in Dalmatia known for the temple of Aesculapius (today Cavtat-Ragusavecchia). According to the Vita s. Hilarionis of St Jerome (PL 23, 1, 50), Hilarion killed a dragon there, and the event was already interpreted allegorically by Coleti. In the sixth century it was an episcopal see.
The names of three bishops of this ancient city have been preserved: Fabrizio (530) and Paulo (Paolo, 533), who took part in the Synods of Salona as suffragans,
14. – CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA. – V.
■ Florenzio, to whom Gregory the Great addressed several letters (591). After the destruction of the city by the Avars in the seventh century, Bishop Giovanni, together with part of the population that had escaped the slaughter, settled on a steep crag beneath Mount Srd (S. Sergio), and founded a new city: Ragustum, Ragusa, whose bishops are successors of those of E.