Istropŏlis, a city of Thrace near the mouth of the Ister, founded by a Milesian colony. Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 11.
Isus and Antĭphus, sons of Priam, the latter by Hecuba, and the former by a concubine. They were seized by Achilles, as they fed their father’s flocks on mount Ida; but they were redeemed by Priam, and fought against the Greeks. They were both killed by Agamemnon. Homer, Iliad, bk. 11.——A city of Bœotia. Strabo, bk. 9.
Itălia, a celebrated country of Europe, bounded by the Adriatic and Tyrrhene seas, and by the Alpine mountains. It has been compared, and with some similitude, to a man’s leg. It has borne, at different periods, the different names of Saturnia, Œnotria, Hesperia, Ausonia, and Tyrrhenia, and it received the name of Italy either from Italus, a king of the country, or from Italos, a Greek word which signifies an ox, an animal very common in that part of Europe. The boundaries of Italy appear to have been formed by nature itself, which seems to have been particularly careful in supplying this country with whatever may contribute not only to the support, but also to the pleasures and luxuries of life. It has been called the garden of Europe; and the panegyric which Pliny bestows upon it seems not in any degree exaggerated. The ancient inhabitants called themselves Aborigines, offspring of the soil, and the country was soon after peopled by colonies from Greece. The Pelasgi and the Arcadians made settlements there, and the whole country was divided into as many different governments as there were towns, till the rapid increase of the Roman power [See: [Roma]] changed the face of Italy, and united all its states in support of one common cause. Italy has been the mother of arts as well as of arms, and the immortal monuments which remain of the eloquence and poetical abilities of its inhabitants are universally known. It was divided into 11 small provinces or regions by Augustus, though sometimes known under the three greater divisions of Cisalpine Gaul, Italy properly so called, and Magna Græcia. The sea above was called Superum, and that at the south Inferum. Ptolemy, bk. 3, ch. 1.—Dionysius of Halicarnassus.—Diodorus, bk. 4.—Justin, bk. 4, &c.—Cornelius Nepos, Dion, Alcibiades, &c.—Livy, bk. 1, ch. 2, &c.—Varro, de Re Rustica, bk. 2, chs. 1 & 5.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 1, &c.—Polybius, bk. 2.—Florus, bk. 2.—Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 1, ch. 16.—Lucan, bk. 2, li. 397, &c.—Pliny, bk. 3, chs. 5 & 8.
Italĭca, a town of Italy, called also Corfinium.——A town of Spain, now Sevilla la Vieja, built by Scipio for the accommodation of his wounded soldiers. Aulus Gellius, bk. 16, ch. 13.—Appian, Wars in Spain.
Italĭcus, a poet. See: [Silius Italicus].
Itălus, a son of Telegonus. Hyginus, fable 127.——An Arcadian prince, who came to Italy, where he established a kingdom, called after him. It is supposed that he received divine honours after death, as Æneas calls upon him among the deities to whom he paid his adoration when he entered Italy. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 178.——A prince, whose daughter Roma by his wife Leucaria is said to have married Æneas or Ascanius. Plutarch, Romulus.——A king of the Cherusci, &c. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 1, ch. 16.
Itargris, a river of Germany.
Itea, a daughter of Danaus. Hyginus, fable 170.
Itemales, an old man who exposed Œdipus on mount Cithæron, &c. Hyginus, fable 65.
Ithăca, a celebrated island in the Ionian sea, on the western parts of Greece, with a city of the same name, famous for being part of the kingdom of Ulysses. It is very rocky and mountainous, measures about 25 miles in circumference, and is now known by the name of Isola del Compare, or Thiachi. Homer, Iliad, bk. 2, li. 139; Odyssey, bk. 1, li. 186; bk. 4, li. 601; bk. 9, li. 20.—Strabo, bks. 1 & 8.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 7.