Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/26

 14 IDIMIUxM. scribed by Mariti (Viaffgl, vol. i. p. 204), situated to the south of Leucohia, at the loot of Jlouiit Olvmpus. [E- B. J.] IDIMIUJI, a town in Lower Pannonia, on the east of Sirmium, according to the Peut. Tab.; in the Ea- venna Geographer (iv. 19) it is called Idominium. Its site must be looked for in the neighbourhood of Munvicza. [L S.J IDIMUS, a tow-n of uncertain site in Upper Moesia, probably on ih^Morawa in Servia. {It. Ant. 134; Tab. P'eiii.) [L. S.J IDISTAVISUS CAMPUS, the famous battle- field where Germanicus, in a. d. 16, defeated Ar- minius. The name is mentioned only by Tacitus {Ann. ii. 16), who describes it as a "campus me- dius inter Visurgim et colles," and further says of it, that " ut ripae fiumiuis cedunt aut prominentia man- tiuin resistunt, iaaequaliter sinuatur. Pone tergum iiisurgebat silva, editis in altum ramis et pura humo inter arborum truncos." This plain between the river Weser and the hills has been the subject of much discussion among the modem historians of Germany, and various places have been at difterent times pointed out as answering the description of Tacitus' Idistavisus. It was formerly believed that it was the plain near Vegesack, below Bremen ; more recent writers are pretty unanimous in believ- ing that Germanicus went up the river Weser to a point beyond the modern town of Minden, and crossed it in the neighbourhood of JIausherge, whence the battle probably took place between Haus- berge and Rtiiteln, not farfrom the Porta 'e»tphaliea. (Ledebur, Land u. Volk der Bructtrer, p. 288.) As to the name of the place, it used to be believed that it had arisen out of a Koman asking a Geniian what the place was, and the German answering, " It is a wiese" (it is a meadow) ; but Grimm {Deutsche MytJiol. p. 372. 2nd edit.) lias shown that the plain was probably called ldiglai;iso, that is, " the maiden's meadow " (from idisi, a maiden). [L. S.] IDO'MENE {'iSoixivT], Ptol. iii. 13. § 39 ; Ido- menia. Pent. Tab.), a town of Macedonia which the Tabular Itinerary places at 12 M. P. from Stena, the pass now called Demirlcapi, or Iron Gate, on the river Vardhdri. Sitxilces, on his route from Thrace to JIacedonia, crossed Mt. Cercine, leaving the Pae- i ones on his right, and the Sinti and JIaedi on hi» left, and descended upon the Axius at Idomene. (Thuc. ii. 98.) It probably stood upon the right bank of the Axiiis, as it is included by Ptolemy {l. c.) in Emathia, and was near Doberus, next to which it is named by Hierocles among the towns of Consular Macedonia, under the Byzantine empire. (Leake. North. Greece, vol. iii. p. 444.) [E. B. J.] IDO'MENE. [Argos Amphilochicum.] IDRAE ("iSpai, Ptol. iii. 5. § 23), a people of Sarmatia Europaea, whose position cannot be made out from the indications given by Ptolemy. (Scha- farik, Slat'. Alt. vol. i. p."" 2 13.) [E. B. J.] I'DRIAS ('iSptds), according to Stephanus B. {s. v.), a town in Caria which had formerly borne the name of Chrysaoris. Herodotus (v. 118) de- scribes the river Mavsyas as flowing from a district c.iUed Idi-ias ; and it is conjectured that Stratoniceia, founded by Antiochus Soter, was built on the site of the ancient town of Idrias. (Comp. Leake, Asia Minor, p. 235 ; see Laodiceia.) [L. S.] IDU'BEDA ('l5oi''geSa, misspelt by Agathemerus 'I^5ov§aA.5a, ii. 9: Sierra de Oca and Sierra de Lorenzo), a great mountain chain of Hispania, running in .i SE. direction from the mountains of idolea. the Cantabri to the Jlediten-anean, almost parallel to the Ebro, the basin of which it borders on the AY. Strabo makes it also parallel to the Pyrenees, in conformity with his view of the direction of that chain from N. to S. (Strab. iii. p. 161 ; Ptol. ii. 6. §21.) Its chief offsets were: — M. Cauxls. near Bilbilis (JIartial, i. 49, iv. 55), the Saltl's Max- Li.xus (Liv. xl. 39 : probably the Sierra Molina), and, above all, il. Ouospeda, which strikes oS" from it to the S. long before it reaches the sea, and which ought perhaps rather to be regarded as its principal prolongation than as a mere branch. [P. S.] IDUMAEA {'iSovnaia), the name of the countrj' inhabited by the descendants of Edom (or Esau), being, in fact, only the classical form of that ancient Semitic name. (Joseph. Ant. ii. 1. § 1.) It is other- wise called Mount Seir. {Gen. xxxii. 3, sxxvi. 8; I)eut. ii. 5 ; Joshua, xxir. 4.) It lay between Mount Horeb and the southern border of Canaan {Deut. i. 2), extending apparently as for south as the Gulfo/Akaba {Deut. ii. 2— S), as indeed its ports, Ezion-geber, and Eloth, are expressly assigned to the " land of Edom." (2 Chroii. viii. 17.) This country W.1S inhabited in still more ancient times by the Horims {Deut. ii. 12, 22), and derived its more ancient name from their patriarch Seir {Gen. xxxvj. 20; comp. xiv. 6). as is properly maintained by Reland, against the fanciful conjecture of Josephus and otiiers. {Palaestina, pp. 68, 69.) The Jewish historian extends the name Idumaea so far to the north as to comprehend under it great part of the south of Judaea; as when he says that the tribe of Simeon received as their inheritance that part of Idumaea which borders on Egypt and Arabia. {Ant. v. 1. § 22) He elsewhere calls Hebron the tirst city of Idumaea, i.e. reckoning from the north. {B.J. iv. 9. § 7.) From his time the name Idumaea disappears from geographical descriptions, except as an his- torical appellation of the country that was then called Gckilene, or the southern desert (r) Karix. fifcrrifJ'.- Spiati ipTJ/jLos, Euseb. Onom. s. v. AiKifi), or Arabia. The historical records of the Iduniaeans, properly so called, are very scanty. Saul made w;ir upon them; David subdued the whole country ; and Solomon made Ezion-geber a naval station. (1 Sam. xiv. 47, 2 Sam. viii. 14; 1 Kings, xi. 15, ix. 26.) The Edomites, however, recovered their national inde- pendence under Joram, king of Judah (2 Kings, xiv. 7), and avenged themselves on the Jews in the cruellies which they practised at the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. {Psalms, csxxvii. 7.) It was probably during the Babylonish cap- tivity that they extended themselves as far north as Hebron, where they were attacked and subdued by Judas M.iccabaeus. (1 Maccah. v. 65 — 68; Joseph. Ant. xii. 8. § 6.) It was on this account that the whole of the south of Palestine, about Hebron, Gaza, and Eleutheropolis {Beit Jtbnn), came to be designated Idumaea. (Joseph. B. J. iv. 9. § 7, c. Apion. ii. 9 ; S. Jerom. Comment, in Obad. ver. 1.) Jleanwbile, tlie ancient seats of the children of Edom had been invaded and occupied by another tribe, the Nabathaeans, the descendants of the Ishmaehte patriarch Xebaioth [N.b.tiiaei1, under which name the comitry and its capital [Petra] became famous among Greek and I^maii geographers and historians, on which account their description of the district is more appropriately given under that head. St. Jerome's brief but accurate notice of its general features may here suffice: — " Omnis australis legio Idumaeorum de Eleuthero-