Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/56

 40 ILVATES. iv. 654.) Ilva was celebrated in ancient times, as it still is at the present day, for its iron mines; these were probably worked from a very early period bv the Tyrrhenians of the opposite coast, and were already noticed by HecatacKS, who called the island Ai0oA7j : indeed, its Greek name was generally re- garded as derived from the smoke (aiSaATj) of the numerous fui-naces employed in smelting the iron. (Diod. V. 13; Steph. B. s.v.) In the time of Strabo, however, the iron ore was no longer smelted in the i!^land itself, the want of fuel compelling the inha- bitants (as it does at the present day) to transport the ore to the opposite mainland, where it was hmelted and wrought so as to be fitted for com- mercial purposes. The unfailing abundance of the ore (alluded to by Virgil in the line " Insula inexhaustis Chalybum generosa metallis") led to the notion that it grew again as fast as it was extracted from the mines. It had also the advantage of being extracted with great facility, as it is not sunk deep beneath the earth, but forms a hill or mountain mass of solid ore. (Strab. /. c; Diod. ;. c. ; Virg. Aen. x. 174; Plin. iii. 6. s. 12, xxxiv. 14. s. 41 ; Pseud. Arist. de Mirab. 95; Eutil. Itin. i. 351—356; Sil. Ital. viii. 616.) The mines, which are still extensively worked, are situated at a place called Rio^ near the E. coast of the island; they exhibit in many cases unequivocal evidence of the ancient workings. The only mention of lira that occurs in history is in B. c. 453, when we learn from Diodorus that it was ravaged by a Syracusan fleet under Phayllus, in revenge for the piratical expeditions of the Tyr- rhenians. Phayllus having effected but little, a, second fleet was sent under Ajwlles, who is said to have made himself master of the island ; bui it certainly did not remain subject to Syracuse. (Diod. xi. 88.) The name is again incidentally mentioned by Livy (xxx. 39) during the expedition of the consul Tib. Claudius to Corsica and Sai-dinia. Ilva has the advantage of several excellent ports, of which that on the N. side of the island, now called Porto Ferraie, was known in ancient times as the PoRTUs Akgous ("Apyoios ijxiv), from the circumstance that the Argonauts were believed to have touched there on their return voyage, while sailing in quest of Circe. (Strab. v. p. 224; Diod. iv. 56; Apollon. Ehod. iv. 658.) Considerable ruins of buildings of Roman date are visible at a place called Le Grotte, near Poi-to Ferraio, and others are found near CajJO Castello, at the XE. extremity of the island. The quarries of granite near S. Piero, in the SV. part of Elba, appears also to have been extensively worked by the Romans, though no notice of them is found in any ancient writer ; but nume- rous columns, basins for fountains, and other archi- t-ectural ornaments, still remain, either wholly or in part hewn out of the adjacent quarry. (Hoare, Class. Tour, vol. i. pp. 23—29). [E. H. B.] ILVATES, a Ligurian tribe, whose name is found only in Livy. He mentions them first as taking up arms in b. c. 200, in concert with the Gaulish tribes of the Insubres and Cenomani, to de- stroy the Roman colonies of Placentia and Cremona. They are again noticed three years later as being still in arms, after the submission of their Transpa- dane allies; but in the course of that year's cam- paign (b. c. 197) they were reduced by the consul Q. JVIinucius, and their name does not again appear hi hibtory. (Liv. xxx. 10, xxxi. 29, 30.) From IMAUS. the circumstances here related, it is clear that they dwelt on the N. slopes of the Apennines, towards the plains of the Padus, and apparently not veiy far from Clastidium (^Custe^io); but we cannot de- termine with certainty either tlw position or extent of their territory. Their name, like those of most of the Ligurian tribes mentioned by Livy, had disappeared in the Augustan age, and is not found in any of the geographers. [Ligueia.] Walckenaer, however, supposes the Eleates over whom the consul M. Fulvius Nobilior celebrated a triumph in b. c. 159 (Fast. Capit. ap. Gruter, p. 297), and who are in all probability the same people with the Veleiates of Pliny [Veleia], to be identical also with the II- vates of Livy ; but this cannot be assumed without further proof. (Walckenaer, Geogr. des Gnulcs, vol. i. p. 154.) [E. H. B.] IJIACHARA ('I/iix«Va or '}ifiix<^pa, PtoL: £t/i. Imacharensis, Cic. ; Imacarensis, Plin.), a city of Sicily, the name of which does not appear in history, but which is repeatedly mentioned by Cicero among the municipal towns of the island. There is great discrepancy in regard to the form of the name, which is written in many MSS. " Macarensis " or " Jlacha- rensis ;" and the same uncertainty is found in those of Pliny, who also notices the town among those of the interior of Sicily. (Cic. Verr. iii. 18, 42, v. 7; Zumpt, ad foe; Plin. iii. 8. s. 14; Sillig, ad loc.) From the manner in which it is spoken of by Cicero, it would seem to have been a town of some con- sideration, with a territory fertile in corn. That writer associates it with Herbita, Assorus, Agyrium, and other towns of the interior, in a manner that would lead us to suppose it situated in the same region of Sicily ; and this inference is confirmed by Ptolemy, who places Hemichara or Himichara (evi- dently the same place) in the NE. of Sicily, between Capitium and Centuripa. (Ptol. iii. 4. § 12.) Hence Cluverius conjectures that it may have occupied the site of Traina, but this is wholly uncertain. Fazcllo and other Sicilian writers have supposed the ruins of an ancient city, which are still visible on the coast about 9 miles N. of Cape Pachynum, near the Porto Vindicari, to be those of Imachara ; but though the name of Macaresa, still borne by an adjoining head- land, gives some colour to this opinion, it is wholly opposed to the data furnished us by ancient authors, who all agree in placing Imachara in the interior of the island. The ruins in question, which indicate the site of a considerable town, are regarded by Clu- verius (but equally without authority) as those of Ichana. (Cluver. 5/ci7. p. 356; ¥a,zeL de Etb. Sic. iv. 2, p. 217; Amico, jVo<. ad Fazcll. pp.417, 447; Hoare's Classical Tour, vol. ii. p. 301.) £E. H. B.] IMA'US, the great mountain chain, which, ac- cording to the ancients, divided Northern Asia into " Scythia intra Imaum " and " Scythia extra Imaum." This word (t5 "Ijxaov 6pos, Strab. xv. p. 689; Ptol. vi. 13. § 1; rb 'lixahu upos, Strab. ii. p. 129; 6 "Ifxaos, Agathem. u. 9: although all the JISS. of Strabo (xi. p. 516) hare Isamus ("Icra/xos) in the passage describing the expedi- tion of the Graeco-Bactrian king filenander, yet there can be no doubt but that the text is corrupt, and the word Imaus should be substituted), con- nected with the Sanscrit kimavat, " snowy " (comp. Plin. vi. 17; Bohlen, das Alte Indien, vol. i. p. 11 ; Lassen, Ind. Alt. vol. i. p. 17), is one of those many significative expressions which have been used for mountain masses upon every zone of the earth's sur- face (for instance, Mont Blanc, in Savoy, Sierra