Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/84

 68 ISIUII. Scylas, p. 32, where the common reading 'Ipis has been corrected by Gail.) This river is believed to be the modern Tshorok. [L. S.] I'SIUM (Isiu, Itin. Anton, p. 167 ; Isui, Not. Imp.), was a fort situated on the borders of the Thebaid and Heptanomis in Egypt, in lat. 27° 5' N., and on the eastern bank of tiie Nile. Isium was about 20 miles SK. from the castle of Hieracon, and nearly 24 miles NE. from that of JIuthis. Under the Eoman empire a troop of British infantry (ala Britonum) was stationed there. [W. B. D.] ISIUS MONS (Th'lffiov opos, Ptol. iv. 7. § 5), ii mountain, or rather a ridge of highlands rising gra- dually on its western side, but steep and escarped towards the east, on the coast of Aethiopia, and in the Regio Troglodytica. It was seated in lat. 20° 1' N., a little to the southward of the headland Mne- mium (Mvrip.e'iov &Kpov, Ptol. iv. 5. § 7), and SW. of Berenice and the Sinus Immundus {Foul Bay). Jlons Isius answers to the modern Ras-el-Dwaer. Slrabo, indeed (xvii. p. 770), places this eminence further to the south, and says that it was so called from a temple of Isis near its summit. [W. B. D.] ISMARIS ('Iff/uapls XifJ-vt]), a small lake on the south coast of Thrace, a little to the east of Maronea. (Herod, vii. 169; Steph. B. s.v. "lap-apos.) On its eastern side rises Mt. Ismarus. [Ismauus.] [L. S.] rSMARUS ("lo-^apos), a mountain rising on the east of lake Ismaris, on the south coast of Thrace (Virg. Ed. vi. 30, Georg. ii. 37 ; Propert. ii. 13. 5. hi. 12. 25 : Lucret. v. 31, where it is called Is- mara, as in Virg. Aen. x. 351.) Homer {Od. is. 40, 198) speaks of Ismarus as a town of the Cicones, on or at the foot of the mountain. (Comp. Mare. Heracl. 28.) The name of the town also appears in the form Ismaron. (Plin. iv. 18.) The district about Ismarus produced wine which was highly esteemed. (Athen. i. p. 30; Ov. Met. is. 641; Steph. B. s.v.) [L.S.] ISME'NUS. [Thebae.] ISONDAE QUovZcA, Ptol. v. 9. § 23), a people whose position mu-^t be sought for in the valley of the river Terek or Kuma, in Lezgesidn, to the W. of the Caspian. [E. B. J.] ISPI'NUM. [Carpetani.] ISRAEL. [Palaestina.] ISSA Clo-trc, Ptol. ii. 16. § 14 Pomp. Mela, ii. 7. § 13; Phn. iii Itin. Anton.-. Peut. Tab.; Isia, Geog. Eav. ; 'Itjs Const. Porph. de Adm. Imp. 36 : Eth. and Adj. "laaevs, Issaeus, Issensis, Issaicus: Lissa), one of the most well known of the islands in the Adriatic, off the coast of Liburnia. (Strab. vii. p. 315.) It is mentioned by Scylax (p. 8) as a Grecian colony, which, according to Scymnus of Chios (1. 412), was sent from Syracuse. Diodorus (xv. 13) relates that in B.C. 3S7 Dionysius the elder, in his attempts to secure to himself the sovereignty of the Adriatic, assisted the Parians in founding colonies at Issa and Pharos. The island was besieged by Agron, king of Illyria, and the inhabitants applied to Rome for protection, when a message was sent by the Romans to Agron, requiring him to desist from molesting the friends of the republic. In the mean time, b. c. 232, Agron died ; and his widow Teuta, having succeeded to the throne, resolved on pressing the siege of Issa. The Roman envoys required her to cease from hos- tilities, when, in defiance of the law of nations, she put one of them to death. This brought on the First lllyrian War, u. c. 229 ; one of the consequences of which was the hberatiou of Issa. (Polyb. ii. 8 ; App. ISSEDONES. Illyr. '.) That Issa remained free for a long time is proved by its coins, which also show that the island was famous for its wine (comp. Athen. i. p. 22), bearing, as they do, an " amphora " on one side', and on'the other a vine with leaves. (Eckhej, vol.'ii. p. 159.) The inhabitants were expert sea- men and their beaked ships, " Lembi Issaici," ren- dered the Romans especial service in the war with Philip of Iilacedon. (Liv. xxxi. 45, xxxvii. 16, xlii. 48.) They were exempted from the payment of tribute (Liv. xlv. 8), and were reckoned as Roman citizens (Plin. iii. 21). In the time of Caesar the chief town of this island appears to have been very flourishing. The island now called Lissa rises from the sea, so that it is seen at a considerable distance ; it has two ports, the larger one on the NE. side, with a town of the same name : the soil is barren, and wine fonns its chief produce. Lusa is memorable in modern times for the victory obtained by Sir W. Hoste over the French squadron in 1811. (Sir G. Wilkinson, Dahnatia and Montenegro, vol. i. p. 110 ; Neige- baur, Die Sudslavem, pp. 110—115.) [E. B. J.J Agathem. i. 5; 26; Steph. B.; COIN OF issa. ISSA. [Lesbos.] ISSACHAR. [Palaestina.] ISSE'DONES ('I<ra7j5rf;'€j, Steph. B. s. v. ; in the Roman writers the usual form is " Esse- dones "), a people living to the E. of the Argip- paei, and the most remote of the tribes of Cen- tral Asia with whom the Hellenic colonies on the Euxine had any communication. The name is found as early as the Spartan Alcman, b. c. 671 — 631, who calls them "Assedones" (Fr. 94, ed. Welcker), and Hecataeus (Fr.l68, ed. Klau- sen). A great movement among the nomad tribes of the N. had taken place in very remote times, fol- lowing a direction from NE. to SW.; the Arimaspi had driven out the Issedones from the steppes over which they wandered, and they in turn drove out the Scythians, and the Scythians the Cim- merians. Traces of these migrations were indicated in the poem of Aristeas of Proconnesus, a semi- mythical personage, whose pilgrimage to the land of the Issedones was strangely disfigured after his death by the fables of the Milesian colonists. (Herod, iv. 13.) The Issedones, according to Herodotus (iv. 26), have a custom, when any one loses his father, for the kinsfolk to kill a certain number of sheep, whose flesh they hash up together with that of the dead man, and make merry over it. This done, they peel and clean out his skull, which after it has been gilded becomes a kind of idol to which yearly sacrifices are oflfered. In all other respects they are a righteous people, submitting to the rule of women equally with that of men ; in other words, a civilised people. Heeren (Asiat. Xat. vol. ii. p. 15, trans.), upon Dr. Leyden's authority (Asiat. Res. vol. ix. p. 202), illustrates this way of carrying out the duties of