445 
I S T 
XS'SY, a town of France, in the department of Paris: 
three miles fouth-fouth-weft of Paris. 
IS'SY L’EVE'QUE, a town of France, in the depart¬ 
ment of the Saone and Loire: nine miles north-eaft of 
Bourbon Lancy, and nineteen fouth-fouth-weft of Autun. 
ISTACHAR/, or Estachar, a town of Perfia, in the 
province of Chufiftan ; near which are the ruins of an¬ 
cient Perfepolis. Thefe ruins are on a plain, fix miles in 
Breadth, and 105 in length, from north-weft to fouth-eaft. 
It is ufually called Murdasjo, and the inhabitants pretend 
•that it included 880 villages. The foil is chiefly con¬ 
verted into arable land, and watered by a great number 
of rivulets. According to Le Bruyn, no traces of the 
city now remain; the magnificent ruins which he faw in 
the year 1704., and of which he has given a defcription, 
with many plates, are thofe of the royal palace of the an¬ 
cient kings of Perfia, which the Perlians call Chil-minar, 
or Chal-menaer, which fignifies forty columns. Among 
Other ruins is that of a tomb, fuppofed to be the tomb of 
Darius: thirty miles north-north-eaft of Schiras, and 160 
fouth-fouth-eaft of Ifpahan. Lat. 30. 5.N. Ion. 53. 40. E. 
ISTAM'BOLlE, or Is'tabel-An'tar. See Estam- 
BOLiE, vol. vii, 
IS'TAN, a town of Spain, in the province of Grenada: 
fix miles fouth-eaft of Monda. 
ISTAN'NA, a country of Africa, eaft of Benin. 
ISTAPA', a town of Mexico, in the province of Ta- 
bafco : fifteen miles fouth-weft of Villa Hermofa. 
ISTAPA', a town of Mexico, in the province of Me- 
choachan : thirty miles fouth-eaft of Zacatula. Lat. 18. 
10. N. Ion. 102. 46. W. 
ISTAPA', a town of Mexico, in the province of Culi- 
acan : forty miles eaft of Culiacan. 
ISTAPAN', a town of Mexico, in the province of 
•Guadalajara : fifteen miles north-eall of St. Miguel. 
ISTE'CHIA, a town of the Morea, in the gulf of Co- 
ron : feven miles fouth of Scardamula. 
ISTEFAN', a town of Afiatic Turkey, in the province 
of Natolia : twenty miles north of Sinob. 
ISTENAZ', a town of Afiatic Turkey, in the province 
of Caramania: eighteen miles weft of Satalia. 
ISTEPEC', a town of Mexico, in the province of Gua- 
timala : twelve miles north of St. Salvador. 
IS'TER, or Is'trus, an hiftorian, difciple to Callima¬ 
chus.—A large river of Europe, falling into the Euxine 
Sea, called alio the Danube. 
ISTH'MIA, facred games among the Greeks, which 
received their name from the ifthmus of Corinth, where 
they were obferved. They were celebrated in commemo¬ 
ration of Melicerta, who was changed into a fea-deity, 
when his mother Ino had thrown herfelf into the fea with 
him in her arms. The body of Melicerta, according to 
fome traditions, when call upon the fea-fhore, received an 
honourable burial, in memory of which the Ifthmian 
games were inftituted, B.C. 1326. They were interrupt¬ 
ed after they had been celebrated with great regularity 
during fome years, and Thefeus at lart re-inftituted them 
in honour of Neptune, whom he publicly called his father. 
Thefe games were obferved every third, or rather fifth, 
year, and held fo facred and inviolable, that even a public 
calamity could not prevent the celebration. When Co¬ 
rinth was deftroyed by Mummius, the Roman general, 
they were obferved with the ufual folemnity, and the Si- 
cyonians were entrufted with the fuperintendence, which 
had been before one of the privileges of the ruined Co¬ 
rinthians. Combats of every kind were exhibited, and 
the vidors were rewarded wfith garlands of pine-leaves. 
Some time after the cuftom was changed, and the vidor 
received a crown of dry withered parfley. The years were 
reckoned by the celebration of the Ifthmian games, as 
among the Romans from the confular government. Pau- 
fanius. Plutarch. 
ISTH'MIAN, adj. Belonging to an ifthmus; belong¬ 
ing to the public games celebrated every fifth year on the 
ifthmus of Corinth in honour of Neptune. 
Vo l. XI. No. 766. 
I S T 
TSTH'MItTS, a king of MefTenia, &c. 
ISTH'MUS, f. [ijihmus, Lat.] A neck of land joining 
the peninfuia to the continent.—Our church of England 
ftands as Corinth between two feas, and there are fome 
bufy in cutting the ifthmus, to let in both at once upon it. 
Stillingfleet. 
O life, thou nothing’s younger brother! 
Thou weak built ifthmus, that doft proudly rife 
Up betwixt two eternities, 
Yet can’ll not wave nor wind fuftain ; 
But broken and o’erwhelm’d the ocean meets again. Cowleyt, 
The mod celebrated ifthmufes are that of Panama or 
Darien, which joins North and South America; that of 
Suez, which connects Alia and Africa; that of Corinth, 
or Peloponnefus, in the Morea; that of Crim-Tartary, 
otherwile called Taurka Chcrfonefus 5 that of the peninfuia. 
Romania, and Eriffo, or the ifthm.us of the Thracian Cher- 
fbnefus, twelve furlongs broad, being that which Xerxes 
undertook to cut through. The ancients had fever*! de* 
ligns of cutting the ifthmu3 of Corinth, which is a rocky 
hillock, about ten miles over ; but they were all in vain, 
the invention of fluices being not then known. There 
have been attempts too for cutting the ifthmus of Suez, 
to make a communication between the Red Sea and the 
Mediterranean ; but thefe alfo failed; and in one of them 
tt king of Egypt is faid to have loft 120,000 men. 
ISTIATZ'KA, a town of Ruflia, in the government 
of Tobollk, on the Vagai: fixty-eight miles fouth of To- 
bolfk. 
IS'TIB, a town of European Turkey, in Macedonia : 
feventy-two miles north of Saloniki. Lat. 41.50. N. loru 
22. 48. E. 
ISTILLAR', a town of European Turkey, in Macedo¬ 
nia : fifty-fix miles fouth-eaft of Saloniki. 
ISTIZER', a town of Ruflia, in the government of 
Tobollk : twenty-four miles eaft-fouth-eaft of Tobollk. 
IST'LAN, a town of Mexico, in the province of Me-* 
choachan : llxty miles north-weft of Mechoacan. 
IS'TRES, a town of France, in the department of the 
Mouths of the Rhone: eighteen miles fouth-eaft of Arles. 
IS'TRIA, a peninfuia of Europe, bounded on all fides 
by the fea, except towards the north, where it is joined 
to Carniola. It was anciently a part of Ulyrium ; but, 
being conquered by the Romans, between the firlt and fe- 
cond Punic wars, was annexed to Italy. In the middle 
ages it belonged to the patriarch of Aquileia, who was 
invefted with it as a marquifate by the emperor Henry IV. 
In the year ii90,moftof the maritime part was conquered 
by the republic of Venice, though not without lome in¬ 
terruption from the Auftrians. Venetian Iftria was di¬ 
vided into four bilhoprics and eighteen diftrids or terri¬ 
tories; contained fix large and twelve fmall towns or bo¬ 
roughs, two hundred villages, and 100,000 inhabitants; 
whofe chief occupation confifted in agriculture, the cul¬ 
ture of wine and oil, the rearing of bees; the manufac¬ 
turing of lilk, leather, tallow, fait; and in billing. Though 
there are but few corn-fields, yet the quality of the grain 
is fo good, that on this account the barley is exported as 
far as Hamburgh. Of the excellent oil of Iftria, which 
fully equals that of Cordova and Venafro, 20,000 barrels, 
together with the greater part of its Mufcadine wine, are 
yearly exported to Venice only; but the wine of Ribolla 
is generally exported to Germany. The Iftrian lalt is 
preferred to that of the ifles of the Levant, for falting of 
fifh. The tunny-filh and anchovy-filhery are very profit¬ 
able; but there is often a want of fait, lo that many thou- 
far.ds of fifh are left to putrify, whence peftilential effluvia 
arife. The quarries of marble and ftone form likewife 
important branches of commerce; and near Sevignano, 
porcelain clay and alum are found. But the chief riches 
of the country confift in their enormous forefts, which 
occupy the greateft part of the furface of the country ; 
they produce not only an abundance of flre-wocd and 
timber for fliip-building, but likewife plenty of game. 
5 X The 
