Listed 3 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "ITALY Ancient country EUROPE".
A country of Europe, bounded on the north by the Alps, on
the south by the Ionian Sea, on the northeast by the Adriatic or Mare Superum,
and on the southwest by the Mare Tyrrhenum or Inferum. It was called Hesperia
(Hesperia, "Land of the West") by the Greeks, from its western situation
in relation to Greece (Verg. Aen. i. 530), and received also from the Latin
poets the appellation of Ausonia, Saturnia, and Oenotria (Oinotria, "Land
of Wine"). The name Italia some writers derive from Italus, a chief of
the Oenotri or Siculi. Others find the origin of the term in the Greek word
italos, or the Latin vitulus (Oscan vitlu), which corresponds to it. Some make
the name to have belonged originally to a small section of Calabria, and to
have been gradually applied to the whole country.
When the Greeks first became acquainted with this country,
they observed it to be peopled with several distinct nations, as they thought;
and hence we find it divided by them about the time of Aristotle into six regions--Ausonia
or Opica, Tyrrhenia, Iapygia, Ombria, Liguria, and Henetia. Thucydides, in speaking
of Cumae, says that it is situated in Opica; and Aristotle, cited by Dionysius
of Halicarnassus, made Latium a part of this same Opica. As regards the original
use of the name Italia, the truth appears to be that the appellation was first
given by the early Greeks to Calabria Ulterior, or that southern extremity of
the boot which is confined between the Sinus Terinaeus and the Sinus Scyllacius.
Such, at least, is the account of Aristotle. This was not done because the name
was in strictness confined to that section of the country, but because the Greeks
knew at that early period very little, comparatively speaking, of the interior.
The nations in the south of Italy, with whom the Greeks first became acquainted,
were found by them to be descended from the Itali, or, rather, they found this
name in general use among them: hence they called their section of the country
by the name of Italia. As their knowledge of the interior became more enlarged,
other branches of the same race were successively discovered, and the name Italia
thus gradually progressed in its application until it reached the southern limits
of Cisalpine Gaul. To this latter country the name of Gallia Cisalpina was originally
given, because it was peopled principally by Gauls. Towards the end of the third
century B.C., Italia designated all the countries south of the Tiber and Aesis.
At length, in Polybius, we find the name given to all Italy up to the foot of
the Alps. The inclusion of Cisalpine Gaul under this appellation was an act
of policy on the part of the Second Triumvirate, who were afraid lest, if it
remained a province, some future proconsul might imitate Caesar, and overthrow
with his legions the authority of the Republic. At a still later period, Augustus
divided Italy into eleven regions. It is somewhat remarkable that the name Italia,
after having gradually extended to the Alps, should at a subsequent epoch be
limited in its application to the northern parts alone. When the emperor Maximian,
towards the close of the third century A.D., transferred his residence to Milan,
the usage prevailed in the West of giving the name of Italy exclusively to the
five provinces of ?milia, Liguria, Flaminia, Venetia, and Istria. It was in
this sense that the kings of the Lombards were styled kings of Italy.
Italy was never inhabited by a single race. It contained
a number of different peoples, who had migrated into the country at a very early
period. They may be classified under the following five divisions:
(1) The Illyrians.--These were the people usually spoken
of as the Veneti, dwelling at the head of the Adriatic, and regarded by ethnologists
as Indo-European and probably allied to the Albanians in their racial type as
in their language. Of the speech of these people there exist, in addition to
geographical and personal names, several hundred inscriptions, largely dedications
on bronzes and pottery, and all of them very brief. Other offshoots of the same
branch are probably to be found in the Iapygians of southeastern Italy, of whom
the Messapii are the most noted group. Of the last there exist some 165 stone
inscriptions.
(2) The Etruscans.--This curious people extended from the
mouth of the Tiber between its right bank on the sea to the Alps in the north.
For a full account of the theories regarding them, see the article Etruria.
(3) The Greeks.--Southern Italy was colonized by Greeks at
an early period, and there existed in that part of the peninsula (called Magna
Graecia or Graecia Maior) rich and flourishing cities long before Rome had risen
to power. Among them were Tarentum, Sybaris, Croton, Siris (Heraclea), Metapontum,
Locri, and Rhegium, and their inhabitants exerted considerable influence upon
both the purely Italic peoples of Italy and upon the Latin language, contributing
to it a number of non-Ionic word-forms.
(4) The Kelts.--These first appeared in Italy only in historic
times, in the early years of the fourth century B.C. Keltic inscriptions have
been found in Italy as far south as Todi in Umbria.
(5) The Italians Proper.--These are the branch of the Indo-European
race that became specifically identified with Italy, and of which the Latin
subdivision finally dominated the whole peninsula and in fact the known world.
Grouped linguistically, there are two principal divisions: (a) LatinFaliscan
and (b) Oscan-Umbrian or Umbro-Sabellian.
At the time of Augustus the following were the chief divisions
of Italy, an account of which is also given in separate articles: (1) Upper
Italy, which extended from the Alps to the rivers Macra on the west and Rubico
on the east. It comprehended (a) Liguria; (b) Gallia Cisalpina; (c) Venetia,
including Carnia; (d) Istria. (2) Central Italy, sometimes called Italia Propria
(a term not used by the ancients), to distinguish it from Gallia Cisalpina or
Upper Italy, and Magna Graecia or Lower Italy, extended from the rivers Macra
on the west and Rubico on the east, to the rivers Silarus on the west and Frento
on the east. It comprehended (a) Etruria; (b) Umbria; (c) Picenum; (d) Samnium,
including the country of the Sabini, Vestini, Marrucini, Marsi, Paeligni, etc.;
(e) Latium; (f) Campania. (3) Lower Italy, or Magna Graecia, included the remaining
part of the peninsula, south of the rivers Silarus and Frento. It comprehended,
(a) Apulia, including Calabria; (b) Lucania; (c) Bruttium.
Augustus divided Italy into the following eleven Regiones:
I. Latium and Campania. II. The land of the Hirpini, Apulia, and Calabria. III.
Lucania and Bruttium. IV. The land of the Frentani, Marrucini, Paeligni, Marsi,
Vestini, and Sabini, together with Samnium. V. Picenum. VI. Umbria and the district
of Ariminum, in what was formerly called Gallia Cisalpina. VII. Etruria. VIII.
Gallia Cispadana. IX. Liguria. X. The eastern part of Gallia Transpadana, Venetia,
Carnia, and Istria. XI. The western part of Gallia Transpadana.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Islands at the head of the Adriatic, in the Sinus Flanaticus (Gulf of Quarnero); named, as tradition reported, from Absyrtus the brother of Medea, who, according to one account, was killed here.
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