IONIA 



3032 



I. 0. U. 



gen four parts, may be separated into hydrogen 

 and sulphuric oxide. The hydrogen particles 

 may be positively electrified, consequently they 

 form positive ions, and the sulphuric oxide 

 particles may be negatively electrified, and 

 they form the negative ions. In physics these 

 are known respectively as anions and cations. 

 See ELECTROLYSIS; ELECTRICITY. 



IONIA, io'nia, the ancient name of a region 

 inhabited by Ionian Greeks, comprising the 

 district along the western coast of Asia Minor 

 from the River Hermus to Mount Latmus, and 

 the neighboring islands of the Aegean Sea. 

 Ionia was the cradle of the earliest develop- 

 ment in Greek poetry, philosophy and art. In 

 the familiar legends the lonians of Asia Minor 

 were colonists from Attica who left their homes 

 in Greece about the middle of the eleventh cen- 

 tury, B. c. At some unknown date they founded 

 a confederacy of twelve towns, which, though 

 mutually independent, were united for the 

 common good. Famous among these towns 

 were Ephesus, in which stood the celebrated 

 Temple to Diana, one of the seven wonders of 

 the ancient world; and Miletus, distinguished 

 as the birthplace of many philosophers and his- 

 torians (see EPHESUS; MILETUS). 



In the sixth century B..C. the Ionian cities 

 came under the sway of the kings of Lydia, the 

 last of whom, the gold-loving Croesus (which 

 see), was conquered by Cyrus the Great in 546 

 B.C. Ionia then became a part of the Persian 

 dominions, and half a century later the cities 

 made a courageous but unsuccessful effort to 

 regain their independence. The assistance 

 given them in this revolt by the Athenians led 

 to the memorable invasion of Greece by Da- 

 rius I (see PERSIA, subhead History}. After 

 the defeat of Persia by the Greeks, Ionia re- 

 mained a dependency of Athens until the close 

 of the Peloponnesian War in 404 B. c., when the 

 country again fell under Persian rule. Later 

 the cities were conquered by Alexander the 

 Great, and in 64 B. c. Ionia became a part of 

 the Roman province of Asia. Time and the 

 devastating hand of the Turks have destroyed 

 nearly all traces of the ancient civilization. 



IONIAN, io'nian, ISLANDS, a group of 

 islands belonging to Greece, most of which lie 

 in the Ionian Sea, an arm of the Mediter- 

 ranean. They consist of six large islands and 

 a number of islets, and are divided into three 

 main groups. Off the west coast of Epirus is 

 the most northern group, that which com- 

 prises Corfu and the smaller Paxos; the second 

 division, consisting of Santa Maura, Ithaca 



(which see), Cephalonia and Zante, lies about 

 the entrance to the Gulf of Corinth; the third 

 group, consisting of Verigo and several de- 

 pendent islets, lies directly south of Greece in 

 the Mediterranean Sea. They have a com- 

 bined area of 1,117 square miles and a popula- 

 tion of about 227,000. Geographically the 

 islands show many differences, but their sur- 

 face is for the most part mountainous. 



On the division of the Roman world in 395, 

 the Ionian Islands became a part of the East- 

 ern, or Byzantine, Empire, and during the 

 Middle Ages they came into the possession of 

 the republic of Venice. After the Napoleonic 

 wars they were reorganized and made a repub- 

 lic under the protection of Great Britain, a 

 form of government which lasted until 1864, 

 when they were annexed to Greece by consent 

 of the European powers. 



IONIANS, io'nianz, one of the four great 

 families or tribes of the ancient Greeks, dis- 

 tinguished from the Achaeans, Aeolians and 

 Dorians, not only by their artistic and literary 

 superiority, but by a greater love for peace and 

 for luxury. They inhabited Attica, the Cycla- 

 des, and the coast of Asia Minor, but whether 

 the Greek mainland, the island region or the 

 Asiatic shore was their original home, scholars 

 cannot determine. Of all the lonians the 

 Athenians reached the highest plane of civiliza- 

 tion, but they were not of the purest stock. 



IONIAN SEA, a portion of the Mediter- 

 ranean Sea named after the river nymph lo, 

 who, according to the ancient legend, swam 

 across this sea to escape the persecutions of a 

 gadfly which Hera had sent to torment her. 

 Lying south of the Adriatic Sea, with which it 

 is connected by the Strait of Otranto, it sepa- 

 rates Italy and Sicily from Albania and Greece. 

 The Ionian Islands are located along its eastern 

 margin off the coast of Greece. See lo. 



I. 0. U., an abbreviated or phonetic method 

 of writing I owe you. It thus forms an ac- 

 knowledgement or memorandum of a debt, and 

 for formal purposes is usually worded thus: 

 Chicago, July 14, 1917. 



To John Brown. I. O. U. Fifty Dollars. 



THOMAS BROWN. 



Such a memorandum, since it includes no 

 promise to pay, is not really a promissory note, 

 but in law it is sometimes recognized as such. 

 In certain states, for instance, it may be en- 

 dorsed and transferred, like a promissory note. 

 An I. O. U. is strong but not conclusive evi- 

 dence in a suit. The form is used more fre- 

 quently in England than in the United States. 



