By Elena Bisbiroula C'3
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern and Western Europe.
Hypotheses for the etymology of the name "Italia" are numerous.
One theory suggests it to be originated from Ancient Greek term which refers to
the land of the Italói, a triberesided in the region now known as
Calabria, located at the southern tip of the Italian peninsula. Originally
thought to be named Vituli, some scholars suggest their totemic
animal to be the calf (Lat vitulus, Umbrian vitlo,
Oscan Víteliú).Several ancient authors (Dionysius of Halicarnassus,
Antiochus of Syracuse, Aristotle) have instead given the account that Italy to
have been named after a local ruler named Italus.
According to Antiochus of Syracuse, the term Italy, used by the ancient Greeks, initially referred only to the southern portion of the Bruttium peninsula (corresponding to the modern province of Reggio) and parts of the provinces of Catanzaro and Vibo Valentia in southern Italy. Nevertheless, by his time the larger concept of Oenotria and "Italy" had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. According to Strabo's Geographica, before the expansion of the Roman Republic, the name was used by ancient Greeks to indicate the land between the strait of Messina and the line connecting the gulf of Salerno and gulf of Taranto, corresponding roughly to the current region of Calabria. The ancient Greeks gradually came to apply the name "Italia" to a larger region.In addition to the "Greek Italy" in the south, historians have suggested the existence of an "Etruscan Italy" covering variable areas of central Italy.
The borders of Roman Italy, Italia, are better established. Cato's Origines, the first work of history composed in Latin, describes Italy as the entire peninsula as south of the Alps.According to Cato and several Roman authors, the Alps formed the "walls of Italy". In 264 BC, Roman Italy extended from the Arno and Rubicon rivers of the centre-north to the entire south. The northern area of Cisalpine Gaul was occupied by Rome in the 220s BC which was considered geographically and de facto part of Italy,but remained politically and de jure separated. It was legally merged into the administrative unit of Italy in 42 BC by the triumvir Octavian as planned by Julius Caesar.The islands of Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily, and Malta were added to Italy by Diocletian in 292 AD,coinciding the whole Italian geographical region.All its inhabitants were considered Italic and Roman.
The Latin term Italicus was used to describe "a man
of Italy" as opposed to a provincial, or one from the Roman
province. For example, Pliny the Elder notably wrote in a letter Italicus
es an provincialis? meaning "are you an Italian or a
provincial?".The adjective italianus, from which the term
Italian (and also French and English) was derived, is from medieval Latin and
was used alternatively with Italicus during the early modern
period.
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Italy was created. After the Lombard invasions, Italia was retained as the name for their kingdom, and for its successor kingdom within the Holy Roman Empire, which nominally lasted until 1806, although the de facto disintegrated due to factional politics pitting the empire against the ascendance of city republics in the 13th century.
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