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The Origin of the Name Italy

The name “Italy” has been in use since the Vth c. B. C., when it had already prevailed over an array of corresponding names, of various origins (Espéria, Ausónia, Enótria, etc).
“Italy” originally designated the calabrian peninsula and the near ionic coast of Metaponto, but in the beginning it had to be limited to that extreme part of Calabria, that lies to south of the Gulfs of S.Ufémia and Squillace, or, according to another possible interpretation of the sources, approximately close to today’s southern Campania (Cilento), between the Rivers Sele and Lao.

According to Antioco of Siracusa (V sec. to C.) the name derives from a king named “Italo”, whose existence is however uncertain and probably only a legend.
More convincing is indeed a derivation from the word “viteliu”, a word from the Osco language, that indicates either a territory abundant with bovines (“vitelli” in Italian) or that bovines were considered sacred animals .
The modern form of the name “Italia” would be would therefore be explained with the fall of the initial “V”, a consequence of the pronunciation of such word from the people of Magna Grecia, from whom this word was adopted by the romans.
In the mid-IVth century B.C. the name “Italia” embraced continental Southern Italy up to Paestum, on the tirrenic coast.

Towards the beginning of IIIrd century it included Campania and after the First Punic War it comprised nearly the entire Peninsula, until the rivers Arno and Esino, then limits of the roman dominance.

As far as its figure goes, the Italian peninsula had already struck the fantasy of ancient people, even if its cartographical representation was very inaccurate and highly schematized.

In fact Polibio (II c. B.C.) compared it to a triangle and Strabone (I c. B.C.) to a quadrangle, while other authors assimilated it to an oak or ivy leaf.
A decisive approach to a more precise and detailed cartographic representation, arrived only in XIIIrd c A.D. , with the appearance of navigational charts.
The commonplace comparison of the shape of the Italian peninsula to a human leg was gradually spread, only to be replaced, in the XVIth c. A.D., by the still favored figure of the boot (“lo stivale” in Italian), that has been even given poetic resonance by Giusti.
During II nd c. B.C., the name, whose political boundaries were still the two rivers Arno and Esino, was however used to designate the peninsula up to the Alps mountain range, as reported by the historians Polibio and Cato the Censor.

In 42 B.C. the agreement between Ottaviano and Antonio endorsed this extension, recognizing for “Italia” the boundaries already established by Caesar, the Varo river to the west and the Formione river (today called Risano) to the east.

Shortly after this Augustus moves Italia’s boundary up to the alps, and, maintaining the Varo river as its western limit, and moving the eastern on the Arsa, a small river that runs in the Istria region until Gulf of Quarnaro (see image above).

The last important step in the evolution of the name “Italia” coincides with the end of IIIrd c. A.D., when emperor Diocleziano joined the islands of Corsica, Sardinia and Sicilia to the so-called “diocesi italiciana”, changing the status of such islands from extra-metrolpitan territories (provinciae) to actual parts of the roman empire.

There is, however, a singularly odd event, that affected the future use of the name “Italia”: the whole country was in fact divided by Diocleziano in two parts, one ruled by a “vicarius Italiae”, that resided in Milan, and a “vicarius Urbis”, resident in Rome; for this reason the name “Italia” was generally associated with the northern part of the peninsula, while, instead, it had originated in the very southern part of the same peninsula.

At the beginning of the Middle Ages this decline is manifested in the title of Regnum Italiae (Odoacre, 476), effectively corresponding to the rule over Northern Italy.
Even worse was the influence of the new barbaric name, that come into the country as ordes of barbarians raided the once so called “Italia”. For example the name “Longobardia” , from VIIth c. up to Xth c. A.D., was often a substitute for “Italia”; or else it was used only to indicated specific region such as the "Ducato d' Italia" in Southern Italy (now called Benevento) or Marca d' Italia in Piedmont.
At some point it was even possible to use the plural “italias” as did historians Paolo Diacono and Ottone of Frisinga.

The classic name, however, resisted thanks to the force of tradition, acquiring after the year 1000 A.D. a linguistic and cultural meaning mainly because of the works by Dante.
In the centuries that followed, the geographic and historical individuality of Italy was asserted gradually and increasingly, until in the 1700s it begun to move towards political unity.

This political unity was anticipated by the Napoleonic period, and also partially and nominally, by the Repubblica Italiana (1802) and by the Regno Italico (1805-1814) and finally realized, with independence, by the Regno d’Italia, proclaimed on March 17th, 1861.

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