Brin'disi (anc. Brundisium, or Brundusium), a seaport town of Southern Italy, on a small promontory in a bay of the Adriatic, 346 miles SE. of Ancona by rail. It was the principal naval station of the Romans in the Adriatic, with a pop. of 100,000. Horace has made a journey to Brundisium the subject of one of his satires (Sat. i. 5), and Virgil died here (19 b.c.) on his return from Greece. With the decline of the crusades it sank into insignificance, and subsequently it suffered greatly from wars and earthquakes. The principal buildings are the archiepiscopal cathedral (1150), now in a somewhat ruinous state; and the castle, commenced by the Emperor Frederick II., and finished by Charles V. Since the establishment of the Overland Route to India, Brindisi has greatly increased, and as the terminus of the Mont Cenis and other railway routes, it has become a great point of departure for passengers for the East. It is about 60 hours from London by rail; and the weekly steamers to Alexandria make the passage in three days. The extensive and well-sheltered harbour has undergone great improvement; and mail steamers can now lie alongside the quays in 26 feet of water. Pop. 24,508.