Volume 2

A dictionary of Greek and Roman geography / by various writers ; edited by William Smith.

Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A dictionary of Greek and Roman geography / by various writers ; edited by William Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    no affinity either in language or descent, they have an old version of tlie Bible into their language. The structure of this language has been studied by Adelung (^Mithridat vol. i. pp. 430, foil.) and other modern philologers, among whom may be mentioned Brosset, the author of several learned memoirs on the Georgian grammar and language : Klaproth, also, has given a long vocabulary of it, in liis Asia Polyglotta. Armenian writers have supplied historical me- moirs to Georgia, though it has not been entirely wanting in domestic chronicles. These curious records, which have much the style and appearance of the half-legendary monkish histories of other countries, are supposed to be founded on substantial truth. One of the most important works on Georgian history is the memorials of the celebrated Oi'pelian family, which have been published by St. Martin, with a translation. Some account of these, along with a short sketch of the History of the Georgians and their literature, will be found in Pricliard (^Physical Hist, of Mankind., vol. iv. pp, 261—276). Dubois de Montpereux (Voyage autour du Caucase, vol. ii. pp. 8—169) has given an outline of the history of Georgia, from native sources ; and the maps in the magnificent Atlas that accompanies his work will be found of great service. [E. B. J,] IBE'RIA INDIAE (^ISrjpia, Peripl. M. E. p. 24, ed. Hudson), a district placed by the author of the Periplus between Larica and the Scythians. It was doubtless peopled by some of the Scythian tribes, who gradually made their descent to the S. and SE. part of Scinde, and founded the Indo-Scythic empire, on the overthrow of the Greek kings of Bactria, about B. c. 136. The name would seem to imply that the population who occupied this district had come from the Caucasus. [V.] IBE'RICUM MARE. [Hispanum Mare.] IBE'RES, IBE'RI, IBE'RIA. [Hispania.] IBERINGAE (TSeplyyai, Ptol. vii. 2. § 18), a people placed by Ptolemy between the Bepyrrhus Mons (^Naraka Mts. ?') and the Montes Damassi, in India extra Gangem, near the Brahmaputra. [V.] IBE'RUS (^l€gp, gen. -rjpos, and I^rjpos; in MSS. often Hiberus: Ebro), one of the chief rivers of Spain, the basin of which includes the NE. portion of the peninsula, between the great mountain chains of the Pyrenees and Idubeda. [Hispania.] It ri.ses in the mountains of the Cantabri, not far from the middle of the chain, near the city of .Tuliobriga (the source lies 12 miles W. of Reyhosa), and, flowing with a nearly uniform direction to the SE., after a course of 450 M. P, (340 miles), falls into the Mediterranean, in 40° 42' N. lat., and 0° 50' E. long., forming a considerable delta at its mouth. It was navigable for 260 M. P. from the town of Vauia (Farea, in Burgos). Its chief tributaries were:—on the left, the SicoRis (Segre) and the Gaelicus (^Gallego), and on the right the Saeo (Xalon). It was long the boundary of the two Spains [Hispania], whence perhaps arose the error of Appian (^Hisp. 6), who makes it divide the peninsula into two equal parts. There are some other errors not worthy of notice. The origin of the name is disputed. Dismissing derivations from the Phoenician, the question seems to depend very much on whether the Iberians derived their name from the river, as w^as the belief of the ancient writers, or whether the river took its name from the people, as W. von Humboldt contends. If the former was the case, and if Niebuhr’s view is correct, that the popu- lation of NE. Spain was originally Celtic [Hl8- pania] , a natural etymology is at once found in the Celtic aher, i. e. water. (Polyb. ii. 13, iii. 34, 40, et alib.; Scyl. p. 1; Strab. iii. pp. 156, et seq.; Steph. B. s. V.- Mela, ii. 6. § 5; Caes. B. C. i. 60; Liv. xxi. 5, 19, 22, &c.; Plin. iii. 3. s. 4, iv. 20. s. 34; Lucan, iv. 23; Cato, Orig. Vll. ap. Nonius, s. v. Pisculentus.) [P. S.] IBETTES. [Samos.] IBES, a town in the SE. of Hispania Citerior, mentioned by Livy (xxviii. 21, where the MSS. vary in the reading), is perhaps the modem Ibi, NE. of Valencia. (Coins, ap. Sestini, p. 156 ; Laborde, Itin. vol. i. p. 293.) [P. S.] IBIO'NES, VIBIO'NES (’Igiciipey, al. Obi§id)U€s, Ptol. iii. 5. § 23), a Slavonian people of Sarmatia Europaea, whom Schafarik (^Slav.Alt. vol. i. p. 213) looks for in the neighbourhood of a river Iva-Iviza- Ivinka, of which there are several in Russia deriving their name from “ iwa ” = “ Salix Alba,” or the common white willow. [E. B. J.] IBLIODURUM, in Gallia Belgica, is placed by the Antonine Itin. on the road between Virodunum (Fer- dun) and Divodurum (3/ete). The termination (durum) implies that it is on a stream. The whole distance in the Itin. between Verdun and Metz is 23 Gallic leagues, or.•34^ M. P., which is less than even the direct distance between Verdun and Metz. There is, therefore, an error in the numbers in the Itin. somewhere between Virodunum and Divodurum, which D'Anville corrects in his usual way. The site of Ibliodurum is supposed to be on the Iron, at a place about two leagues above its junction with the Orne, a branch of the Mosel, and on the line of an old road. [G. L.] ICA'RIA. [Attica, p. 328, b.] ICA'RIUM MARE. [Icarus ; Aegaeum Mare.] I'CARUS, PC ARIA (^luapos, ^luapia: Nikaria), an island of the Aegean, to the west of Samos, ac- cording to Strabo (x. p. 480, xiv. 639), 80 stadia from Cape Ampelos, while Pliny (v. 23) makes the distance 35 miles. The island is in reality a con- tinuation of the range of hills traversing Samos from east to west, whence it is long and narrow, and ex- tends from NE. to SW. Its length, according to Pliny, is 17 miles, and its circumference, according to Strabo, 300 stadia. The island, which gave its name to the whole of the surrounding sea (Icarium Mare or Pelagus), derived its own name, according to tradition, from Icarus, the son of Daedalus, who was believed to have fallen into the sea near this island. (Ov. 3Iet. viii. 195, foil.) The cape form- ing the easternmost point of the island was called Drepanum or Dracanum (Strab. xiv. pp. 637, 639; Horn. Hymn, xxxiv. 1; Diod. Sic. iii. 66; Plin. iv. 23; Steph. B. s. v. ApaKovov), and near it was a small town of the same name. Further west, on the north coast, was the small town of Isti (''IcToi), with a tolerably good roadstead; to the south of this was another little place, called Oenoe (Olvorj, Strab. 1. c.; Athen. i. p. 30.) According to some traditions, Dionysus was born on Cape Dra- conum (Theocrit. Idyll, xxvi. 33), and Artemis had a temple near Isti, called Tauropolion. The island had received its first colonists from Miletus (Strab. xiv, p. 635); but in the time of Strabo it belonged to the Samians: it had then but few inhabitants, and was mainly used by the Samians as pasture land for their flocks. (Strab. x. pp. 488, xiv. p. 639; Scy- lax, pp. 22; Aeschyl. 887; Thucyd. iii. 92, viii