IONIAN ISLANDS IPECACUANHA. 



109 



tenant), which was particularly spoken in the Gret-k 

 colonies in Asia Minor and on the islands of the 

 Archipelago. It is divided into the old and new. In 

 the former, Homer and Hesiod wrote. It originally 

 differed little, or not at all, from the old Attic. The 

 new Ionian originated after the lonians had more 

 intercourse with the other tribes, and planted colonies. 

 Anacreon, Herodotus, and Hippocrates wrote in this 

 dialect. See Greek Language, under the head of 

 Greece and Dialect. 



IONIAN ISLANDS; a republic in the south of 

 Europe, under the protection of Great Britain, situ- 

 ated in the Ionian sea, along the western coast of 

 Greece and Albania. The state is often called the 

 Republic of the Seven Islands, on account of the 

 seven chief islands of which it is composed, viz., Cor- 

 fu, Paxos, Santa Maura, Thiaki or Ithaca, and Cepha- 

 lonia, lying west of the gulf of Lepanto ; Zante, near 

 the western shore of the Morea ; and Cerigo, to the 

 south-east of the same peninsula. The other islands 

 and islets of this little state are Merlera, Fano, 

 Samotraki, Anti-Paxos, Calamos, Meganesi, and 

 Cerigotto, which is the most southern and most 

 eastern point of the republic, in 35 5& lat. N., and 

 23 17' Ion. E. Merlera, in 39 57' lat. N., is the 

 most northern, and Fano, in 19 Ion. E., the most 

 western point. Most of the inhabitants of the Ionian 

 islands are of Greek origin. A census, in 1814, 

 gave a population of 218,000 : at present, it amounts 

 to about 227,000, of whom about 8000 are Italians, 

 and 7000 Jews. There are also some English there. 

 The inhabitants are in general superstitious, and their 

 morals are lax. Until of late, the language spoken 

 here was a corrupt Italian, but modern Greek now 

 prevails. The English and Greek inhabitants have 

 little intercourse, notwithstanding the efforts of 

 the English government. In 1828, there were 

 twenty-nine schools of mutual instruction, a college, 

 and a university, founded in 1823. 



The coasts of the islands are rugged, the surface 

 uneven, containing a number of barren rocks and 

 some high hills, interspersed with fertile plains and 

 valleys. The climate is very mild, but subject to 

 sudden changes. The productions are corn, vines, 

 olives, currants, cotton, honey, wax, &c. Vines and 

 olives form the chief source of income to the inhabi- 

 tants. In 1825, the exports amounted to nearly 

 150,000. The currants and small dried grapes are 

 exported in large quantities. Since 1815, this state 

 has formed an aristocratic government, under the 

 name of the United Ionian Islands, under the pro- 

 tection of Great Britain, and entirely dependent on 

 her. A constitution was granted by Great Britain, 

 in 1817. There is a British high-commissioner at 

 Corfu, the capital of the state, and Great Britain has 

 a right to occupy the fortresses, and keep garrisons. 

 The high commissioner convokes the legislative 

 assembly, appoints the governors of the different 

 islands, and commands the forces. The legislative 

 assembly consists of forty members, and holds its 

 sessions at Corfu. Five senators, chosen by the 

 legislative assembly from their own number, and a 

 president, appointed by the commissioner, for five 

 years, form the senate. The civil law is the law 

 of the land. Revenue, about 150,000; expendi- 

 ture for the force maintained by Great Britain 

 (6400 men, among whom are four regiments of 

 natives), 100,000. 



These islands were inhabited at an early period, 

 and formed small states in the most flourishing period 

 of Greece. They were reduced by Alexander the 

 Great, at a later period by the Romans, and they 

 afterwards formed part of the Byzantine empire. 

 The kings of Naples obtained possession, in the 

 thirteenth century, of Corfu and other islands, but, in 



the fourteenth century, the Venetians, then the mas- 

 ters of the Adriatic sea, occupied all the Seven 

 Islands. Corfu placed herself under the protection 

 of Venice, in 1386, and the other islands followed 

 her example. Venice left the government in its 

 former state, merely sending out provveditori as 

 beads of the administration. The claims of Naples 

 were extinguished by purchase, and Venice remained 

 in possession of the islands, in spite of the repeated 

 attacks of the Turks, until the republic of Venice 

 was itself dissolved, in 1797. In 1799, the Russians 

 and Turks conquered them ; and the emperor Paul, 

 by a ukase of March 21, 1800, declared them a 

 state, under the name of the Republic of the Seven 

 United Islands, forming an aristocracy under the 

 protection of Turkey. In 1803, Russia granted a 

 new constitution. In 1807, they were incorporated 

 with the great empire of France ; but the French 

 were able to maintain only Corfu. Nov. 5, 1815, it 

 was agreed between Russia and Great Britain (later 

 also Austria), that the islands should form a republic, 

 under the name of the United State of the Ionian 

 Islands, and under the exclusive protection of Great 

 Britain. In April, 1819, Great Britain agreed to 

 cede to the Porte the city of Parga, on the continent, 

 which had so long maintained itself against AH 

 Pacha (q. v.). The greater part of the Pargiots, in 

 despair, emigrated to the Ionian islands. (See 

 Parga.) The commercial flag of the Ionian Islands 

 is acknowledged as the Hag of an independent nation. 

 See the works of Cell, Dodwell, Hughes, Mustoxodi, 

 and Kendrik ; also, Essay on the Islands of Corfu, 

 Leucadia, Cephalonia, &c., by W. Goodisson (Lon- 

 don, 1822) ; Antiquities of Ionia, published by the 

 society of Dilettanti, London. 



IONIAN ORDER. See Architecture. 



IONIAN PHILOSOPHY. As Grecian civiliza- 

 tion was first developed among the lonians (see 

 loniansand Ionia), Grecian philosophy also originated 

 among them. The Ionian philosophy started with 

 the question respecting the primitive elements of the 

 world. To the Ionian school (/ fvinxtii) belong 

 Thales, Anaximander, Pherecydes, and, in some 

 points, Anaximenes. (See Philosophy, and consult 

 Bouterwek, De primis Phil. Greec. Decretis Physicis, 

 in the second volume of the Comm. Soc. Goett. 1811 ; 

 Ritter, Geschichte der loniscAen Philosophic, Berlin, 

 1821, and Geschichte der Philosophic, volume 1st, by 

 the same, Hamburg, 1829). In modern times, the 

 Ionian philosophy has been revived, in connexion 

 with the atomic system, by Berigard, Magnenus, 

 Sennert, and Gassendi. 



IONIAN SEA ; ancient name of that part of the 

 Mediterranean which lies between the south part of 

 Italy and Greece. 



IONIANS ; a tribe of Greeks, deriving its name 

 from Ion (q. v.). They first lived in the Pelopon- 

 nesus, on the borders of the gulf of Corinth, where 

 they built twelve cities, celebrated for their manu- 

 factures and commerce. The Achaeans, being 

 pressed by the Heraclides and Dorians, united them- 

 selves with them, and the country became insuf- 

 ficient for both people ; the lonians therefore emi- 

 grated to Attica, whence Neleus led a colony to 

 Asia. (See Ionia.) Those who had remained in Attica 

 were mingled with other tribes, and the Asiatic 

 lonians alone retained the name. 



IONIC FOOT consists of four syllables, two 

 short and two long. If the two short syllables are 



in the beginning (^ ^ ), it is called ionicus 



minor : if the two short syllables follow ( ^ *^), 



it is called ionictts major. Horace used the former. 



IOTA ; the Greek name for i. See /. 



IPECACUANHA, according to the latest authori- 

 ties, is the product of two different plants, both 



