in Ancient Geography, a town of Bætica in Spain, built by Scipio Africanus, and famous for being the birth-place of the emperors Trajan and Hadrian, and of the poet Silius Italicus. It is now Seville Vieja, a small village of Andalusia, on the Guadalquivir. This extensive and interesting portion of Europe did not receive the name it has long borne till the extension of the Roman empire. The origin of that name has been derived by different persons from various sources. Timaeus and Varro have deduced it from a Greek word, Ἰταλος, which signifies an ox, because it contains a vast extent of pasture land, peculiarly adapted to that animal. Thucydides and Dionysius of Halicarnassus derive the name from a king Italus. In early periods it was sometimes called Saturnia, from the name of a deity, Saturn, in the heathen mythology. It was sometimes called Enotria, from a Sabine chief named Enotrius; and frequently Ausonia, from Auson, a son of Ulysses, who is said to have established a tribe in the centre of the peninsula. All of these more ancient names seem, however, to have referred only to particular districts, which, when the Roman power had subjected them all, assumed, with the other parts subsequently united to them, the general name it still continues to bear. The Greeks at all times applied to it the name Hesperia, on account of its being to the westward from their country; and the Teutones or Germans called it Waelischland, because the parts nearest to them were inhabited by a people called Galles, changed into Walles; and in their present language the name of Waelischland is still retained by the common people.

The history of Italy before the rise of the Roman power is, like that of all rude nations, involved in obscurity, or clouded with indistinctness; through which the indefatigable Niebuhr, with a profusion of learning, has endeavoured to grope his way. Before Rome began to be powerful, Italy was peopled by inhabitants who had made some advances towards civilization. In the northern part the Gauls were rude and fierce, and they the longest resisted the encroaching power; whilst lower down, on the Arno and the Tiber, there was a number of smaller tribes, such as the Etruscans, the Samnites, and the Latins, who, in a kind of confederacy, though sometimes at variance with one another, long sought, and ultimately in vain, to defend their freedom against the rising and aspiring city. In the southern parts were colonies of emigrants from Greece, with but little union, and frequently engaged in hostilities amongst themselves. When and by what means all these tribes became finally subjected to Rome, belongs to the history of that empire; for the history of the conquered is swallowed up in that of the conquerors.

The fate of Italy was that of Rome till the dissolution of that colossal power. When the seat of empire was removed to Constantinople, Italy, though accounted a portion of the western empire, was treated as a dependent province, and continued with only the semblance of power, which power was finally wrested from all dependence on Byzantium by an adventurous Gothic warrior, who, about the year 476 of the Christian era, founded the kingdom of Italy.

Odoacer had raised himself, by his intrigues amongst the mercenary guards, to the command of those troops, who from inactivity had become restless and mutinous. Augustulus, the last emperor of the West, was unable to resist the power of his disaffected troops, and withdrew to Pavia. That city was besieged, captured, and ravaged, and Augustulas retired to obscurity, when Odoacer proclaimed himself king of Italy. He exercised the power with dignity, and, as regarded Augustulus, with clemency, by assigning him a liberal establishment, during the few years that remained of his life, in the retreat he had selected in Campania. Italy was in a wretched state, and Odoacer used as much prudence and humanity as could have been exercised by a rude conqueror, to improve the condition and the institutions of the country; but the licentious troops who had been the means of his obtaining it could not be kept in obedience by a power so created, and disorders became universal. When Odoacer had reigned fourteen years, Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, at the instigation of the Emperor Zeno, who reigned in Byzantium, invaded the newly-founded kingdom; defeated and assassinated Odoacer; and, in 493, added the whole of Italy to his dominions, which thus extended from the Alps to Sicily. The only part not subjected was some islands in the lagunes of the Adriatic Sea, inhabited by fishermen and salt-makers, who had first found a refuge in these from the ravages of Attila, and had there secured freedom, and by their union, and by the capability of defending themselves, laid the foundation of what subsequently became the republic of Venice. In the favoured climate of Italy, and under the government of Theodoric, the Goths multiplied rapidly; and they were almost the sole masters of the soil, and of the slaves who cultivated it. By his external policy he had acquired the confidence of the other Gothic tribes, even in the remote regions that border on the Baltic Sea, and had introduced strong and regular forms of government into Rhaetia, Noricum, Dalmatia, and Pannonia. Though the jealousy of the emperor at Byzantium induced him to invade the territory commanded by Theodoric, and to employ both a large fleet and a powerful army, his attempts were repelled by sea and by land, and his forces were dispersed or dispirited, and retired from the contest.

Theodoric was not less successful in another attack from the west by King Clovis, the leader of the Franks, who were checked in the midst of a career which had commenced with brilliant success.

Ravenna was the seat of the government of this prince, though he occasionally resided at Verona. He once visited Rome, where he was received with rapture by the populace, and with the highest marks of respect by the senators. During the latter and peaceful portion of his reign he endeavoured to amalgamate his Italian and Gothic subjects; but his success was much obstructed by the religious controversy between the orthodox and the Arians, though, whilst adhering to the latter sect, he tolerated and even honoured many of the other profession. But a union was in some measure effected between the conquerors and the conquered, and civilization was advanced during this long reign, although at the sacrifice of the manly simplicity of the former to the corruption and luxurious indulgences of the latter.

Theodoric died in the palace he had built at Ravenna, in 526, after a reign of thirty-three years, having by his will divided his dominions between two grandsons, bequeathing Italy to Athalaric, then a boy of twelve years of age. The youthful sovereign was left under the pupillage of his mother Amalasontha, from which he was early withdrawn by the flatterers who surrounded him. His mother then entered into intrigues with the Emperor Justinian, tending to deliver up Italy to its ancient dependence on the court of Byzantium. Her son, as he advanced in age, entered on the most dissolute courses, by which his life was terminated in the sixteenth year of his age. His mother, who assumed the power, was speedily assassinated by a husband she had chosen to be a sharer of the throne.

The imperial court was eager to take advantage of the unsettled state of Italy to reduce it again under subjection. Belisarius, the most renowned of the generals, was despatched, but with an inconsiderable force. Hostilities raged with great fury, and after a variety of changes in the aspect of affairs, the imperial commander had so weakened the Goths, and so engaged the confidence and assistance of the Italian inhabitants, that the prospect of complete subjugation presented itself. This was, however, clouded by the dissensions which broke out amongst the officers in command of the several divisions of the army of Justinian in 538. At that time the chief command was conferred on Narses, a eunuch, whose conduct at that period, whatever military merit he afterwards displayed, tended greatly to the injury of his sovereign's party.

Narses was indeed soon recalled, and Belisarius reinstated in the supreme command; but in the midst of discord the Goths had been permitted to breathe, an important season was lost. Milan had been destroyed, and the northern provinces of Italy were afflicted by an inundation of the Franks. Under Belisarius the events of the war underwent a favourable change; he captured the strongly fortified city of Ravenna, and returned with numerous captives to Constantinople to receive the applause of the people and a splendid triumph, the last reward of his valour and his humanity.

The removal of Belisarius from Italy revived the spirits of the remaining Goths, and the feeble efforts of the successive generals of Justinian were insufficient to crush the civil war. The handful of the barbarians, scarcely amounting to five thousand, and in possession of no other strong place than Pavia, chose Totila for their chief, and proclaimed him king of Italy, in the year 541.

His progress was rapid, and almost without interruption, from the north of Italy to Naples. He captured that city, and returned to Rome, which he besieged; and though Belisarius, who had been recalled from the wars of Persia, attempted to relieve it, he was unable to do so; and the citizens, compelled by famine, allowed the Goths to occupy the capital of the western empire in the year 546. After an useless occupation of Rome when it had been abandoned by Totila, Belisarius was recalled to Constantinople, and the command once more conferred upon Narses, who was furnished with troops, stores, and money, with a profusion widely different from the parsimony exercised towards his predecessor. He advanced with his forces by the head of the Adriatic Sea, and in a tremendous battle encountered the Goths under Totila, whom he totally defeated, whilst that chief was killed in the conflict. After his death, those who had escaped elected Tejas as their king; but he too became the victim of his ambition, was soon subdued by Narses, and with him terminated, in 553, the Gothic kingdom of Italy, by the capture of the last of their fortified places.