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 438 ISTRIA ITALIC RACES tests in music and poetry. The Romans added to them gladiatorial shows and fights of wild heasts, which were continued to the time of the final decay of the festival. The prize was a simple garland of pine leaves. Solon, in his legislation, ordered the sum of 100 drachma) to be paid to any one who took a prize at the Isthmian games, and 500 to any one taking an Olympic prize. ISTKIA (anc. Histria), a peninsula and mar- graviate of Austria, on the N. E. coast of the Adriatic ; area, including the Quarnero islands, 1,907 sq. m. ; pop. about 255,000. It now forms, conjointly with the circle of Gorz and the city of Trieste, the Littoral province, but has its own diet. Nearly all the inhabitants are Roman Catholics. It is in general moun- tainous, particularly toward the north, where the surface is occupied by offsets of the Julian Alps. The highest elevation is Monte Mag- giore, about 4,500 ft. The coasts are irregular and indented by numerous good harbors. The soil is not remarkably fertile, but excellent olives, and grain, wine, lemons, and silk, are produced. Sheep and cattle are extensively reared in the mountainous districts, and the coast fisheries and salt works employ a consid- erable number of the inhabitants. The chief towns are Capo d'Istria, Pirano, Isola, Ro- vigno, Pola, Dignano, and Pisino. The people of the towns are mostly Italians, and those of the rural districts of Slavic origin. In remote antiquity the Istrians were an Illyrian tribe, and were engaged in piratical enterprises, but prior to the second Punic war were reduced to submission by Roman consuls. They were again reduced by the consul Claudius Marcel- lus (183 B. C.) and the consul C. Claudius Pulcher (177 B. C.), and did not again revolt. Under Augustus Istria was incorporated with upper Italy. The most flourishing period of its ancient history was while the Roman gov- ernment was fixed at Ravenna. It formed a separate margraviate in the 10th century, and was subject successively to the dukes of Ca- rinthia and of Dalmatia, The Italian part of Istria was held by the Venetians from the 13th century till 1797, the eastern part being incor- porated with Carinthia and subject to the house of Austria. Both portions were ceded to Na- poleon I., and reconquered by Austria in 1813. ISTLBIZ, Francisco Xavier de, a Spanish states- man, born in Cadiz in 1790, died in April, 1871. After the fall of Joseph Bonaparte and the restoration of Ferdinand VII., those in Cadiz who were discontented with the rule of the latter were accustomed to meet in the house of the brothers Isturiz, which was known as the casa Otomana. This was the headquarters of the movement led by Riego (Jan. 1, 1820), " which made an anarchy of three years suc- ceed a despotism of six." Xavier de Isturiz went to Madrid, where he aided in establishing liberal clubs ; and having thereby placed him- self in opposition to Arguelles and Martinez de la Rosa, who represented the moderate con- stitutionalists, he excited public opinion against them, especially after his election to the cortus in 1822. In 1823, while president of this body, ho voted for the suspension of the royal pow- er. Condemned to death after the restoration, ho fled to London, where he was a partner in the mercantile house of Zulueta. Pardoned by the amnesty of the queen regent Maria Christina in 1834, he returned to Spain, where he at once engaged in democratic agitation and provoked the rising of the national guard, whose object was the overthrow of the minis- ter Toreno, but which was suppressed by Que- sada. Shortly afterward his friend Mendiza- bal became prime minister, and made Isturiz his most intimate adviser. In November, 1835, he was appointed president of the chamber of procuradores, a sort of state council. The chamber proved too liberal, which caused a quarrel and a duel between Isturiz and Men- dizabal. After the fall of the latter in 1836, Isturiz was appointed minister of foreign af- fairs and president of the council, but soon grew unpopular with all parties. The tumults of August. 1836, which resulted in the procla- mation of the constitution of 1812, compelled him to take refuge a second time in England, whence he went to France. Having returned to Spain in 1838, he was elected to the cortes, and was its president in 1839. He negotiated the marriages of the young queen and her Bis- ter. In 1848 and again in 1850 he was sent as minister to England, and in 1856 to Russia. On Jan. 5, 1858, he became president of the Spanish senate, and 10 days after minister of foreign affairs and president of the council, but was soon superseded. The same year he was again sent as minister to England. He signed, in conjunction with M. de Flahault and Earl Russell, the convention of Oct. 31, 1861, relative to Mexico. From March, 1863, to October, 1864, he was minister to France. ITACOLOIITE (from Itacolumi, a mountain of Brazil), a granular silicious rock, of laminated structure, found with talcose slates and more or less intermixed with talc or with mica. It is distinguished by its peculiar flexibility, sheets of it bending back and forth as if jointed with- in. It is of particular interest from its occur- rence at the localities in the gold regions where diamonds are found. It is met with in Brazil, the Ural mountains, and in Georgia and North and South Carolina. In the last named state Mr. Oscar Lieber has observed the passage of the itacolumite into a true sandstone or a con- glomerate, proving its sedimentary origin. ITALIC RACES AAD UXG11GKS. In one sense all the various races that occupied the Italian peninsula in ancient times belong to the Italic group; in a more exact classification, only those races and languages are comprised in this division whose characteristics show that they form a distinct branch of the Aryan or Indo-European family. In the former sense we find that Liguria in upper Italy was in- habited by an ancient people called the Ligures