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{{short description|Overview of the name of Italy}}
[[File:Social War AR Syd 621.1.jpg|thumb|Silver coin minted in [[Corfinium]] during the [[Social War (91–87 BC)]], displaying the inscription ''ITALIA'' on the verge of the [[Italia turrita|personification of Italy]], represented as a goddess with [[laurel wreath]]]]
{{History of Italy}}
The [[etymology]] of the '''name of [[Italy]]''' has been the subject of reconstructions by [[linguists]] and [[Historiography|historians]]. Considerations extraneous to the specifically linguistic reconstruction of the name have formed a rich [[Text corpus|corpus]] of solutions that are either associated with legend (the existence of a king named [[Italus]]) or in any case strongly problematic (such as the connection of the name with the [[Vitis vinifera|grape vine]], ''vitis'' in [[Latin]]).<ref name="Manco">Alberto Manco, ''Italia. Disegno storico-linguistico'', 2009, Napoli, L'Orientale, {{ISBN|978-88-95044-62-0}}.</ref> 


One theory is that the name derives from the word ''Italói'', a term with which the [[ancient Greeks]] designated a tribe of [[Sicels]] who had crossed the [[Strait of Messina]] and who inhabited the extreme tip of the [[Italian Peninsula|Italic Peninsula]], near today's [[Catanzaro]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.focus.it/cultura/storia/quale-e-lorigine-del-nome-italia|title=Quale è l'origine del nome Italia?|access-date=16 September 2021|language=it}}</ref> This is attested by the fact that the ancient Greek peoples who colonized present-day [[Calabria]] by integrating with the pre-existing peoples, referred to themselves as [[Italiotes]], that is, inhabitants of Italy.<ref name="Guillotining"/> This group of Italian people had worshiped the simulacrum of a [[Calf (animal)|calf]] (''vitulus'', in Latin), and the name would therefore mean "inhabitants of the land of calves".<ref name=":0" /> In any case, it is known that in archaic times the name indicated the part located in the extreme south of the Italian Peninsula.<ref name="Guillotining">Guillotining, M., History of Earliest Italy, trans. Ryle, M & Soper, K. in Jerome Lectures, Diciassettesima serie, p.50</ref>

The name of Italy originally applied only to the tip of the Italian ''boot''.<ref name="Guillotining"/> As time progressed, the name "Italia" was extended further and further north until it reached the Alps in Roman times and became synonymous with the whole [[Italian geographical region]].<ref name=Treccani>{{cite web|url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/la-riorganizzazione-amministrativa-dell-italia-costantino-roma-il-senato-e-gli-equilibri-dell-italia-romana_%28Enciclopedia-Costantiniana%29/|title=La riorganizzazione amministrativa dell'Italia. Costantino, Roma, il Senato e gli equilibri dell'Italia romana|access-date=19 November 2021|language=it}}</ref>

==Hypothesis on etymology==
===The myth of Italus===
{{blockquote|The region, which is now called Italy, formerly held the [[Oenotrians]]; some time their king was [[Italus]], and then they changed their name to Italics; succeeding Morgete, they were called [[Morgetes]]; later came a [[Siculus]], who divided the peoples, who were then Morgeti and [[Sicels]]; and Italics were those who were Oenotrians|author=[[Antiochus of Syracuse]], in [[Dionysius of Halicarnassus]] 1, 12 vg<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.unilibro.it/libro/maglie-emilio-aldo/sicilia/9788897180838|title=Sicilia|access-date=5 November 2021|language=it}}</ref>}}

There are various legends about the character of Italus, king of the Oenotrians who, according to the myth, lived 16 generations before the [[Trojan War]]; the name "Italy" derives from him.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://matera.italiani.it/scopricitta/italo-il-mitico-re-che-ha-dato-il-nome-all-italia/|title=Italo, il mitico re che ha dato il nome all'Italia|date=22 October 2020 |access-date=5 November 2021|language=it}}</ref> Given first to the region corresponding to his kingdom, that is almost all of [[Calabria]] with the exception of the northern area. King Italus converted the Oenotrians from a nomadic people to a permanent one, establishing them in the extreme offshoot of the European coasts, in the current isthmus of [[Catanzaro]] between the [[Gulf of Squillace]] to the east and the [[Gulf of Saint Euphemia]] to the west.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.calabriaportal.com/popoli-della-calabria/4639-itali.html|title=Gli Itali in Calabria|access-date=5 November 2021|language=it}}</ref> The capital of his kingdom, according to Strabo, was [[Pandosia (Bruttium)|Pandosia Bruzia]], today probably corresponding to the city of [[Acri]].

According to Strabo, Antiochus of Syracuse (5th century BC) already spoke of the borders of Italy in his work ''On Italy'',<ref>[[Strabo]], ''[[Geographica]]'', VI, 1,4.</ref> which identified it with the ancient Oenotrians. At that time it extended from the [[Strait of Sicily]] to the [[Gulf of Taranto]] (to the east) and the [[Gulf of Salerno|Gulf of Posidonia]] (to the west).<ref name="StraboneItaliaV1.1">[[Strabo]], ''[[Geographica]]'', V, 1,1.</ref>

===Italy as the land of calves===
[[File:Iron Age Italy.svg|thumb|right|upright=1.5|Ethnolinguistic map of Italy in the [[Iron Age]], before the [[Roman conquest of Italy|Roman expansion and conquest of Italy]]]]

Not all ancient authors adhered to the mythological version. [[Marcus Terentius Varro]] who, citing [[Timaeus (historian)|Timaeus]], derives the word ''Italia'' from calves ("''Italia a Vitulis''") for the abundance and beauty of the [[Calf (animal)|calf]] (''vitulus'' in [[Latin]], {{IPA|la|ˈu̯ɪt̪ʊɫ̪ʊs|pron}}; ''vitlu'' in [[Osco-Umbrian languages|Osco-Umbrian]]) in the region.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://docenti.unimc.it/francesca.boldrer/teaching/2019/20589/files/italiam-quaero|title=Bollettino di studi latini|access-date=5 November 2021|language=it}}</ref> The passage from the ''Vitalia'' form to ''Italia'' can in this case be explained by the simple fall of the initial consonant by means of classical Greek, in which the letter V is absent.<ref name="viaggioincoppia">{{cite web|url=https://viaggioincoppia.com/perche-l-italia-si-chiama-italia/|title=Perché l'Italia si chiama Italia? 7 possibili risposte|date=31 December 2020 |access-date=5 November 2021|language=it}}</ref>

Other proposals that motivate the name beyond a real linguistic analysis can be remembered that of Domenico Romanelli, who, based on the ancient but never fully accepted hypothesis that it was related to the [[bull]]s (''taurus'' in Latin), explained it with the fact that those who came from the sea from the west saw bull-like silhouettes in the ''Bruttia'' and ''Japigia'' peninsulas.<ref name= Romanelli>Domenico Romanelli, ''Antica topografia istorica del Regno di Napoli'', Napoli 1815</ref>

In ancient times the lands of present-day [[Calabria]] were known as Italy.<ref name="eccellenzemeridionali">{{cite web|url=https://eccellenzemeridionali.it/2020/05/12/e-se-litalia-fosse-nata-in-calabria/|title=L'Italia è nata in Calabria. Ecco la teoria che lo confermerebbe?|date=12 May 2020 |access-date=5 November 2021|language=it}}</ref> The ancient Greeks indicated the origin of the name in ''Ouitoulía'' from the word "Italói" (plural of ''Italós''), a term with which the [[Achaeans (tribe)|Achaeans]] settlers who arrived in the lands of present-day Calabria ambiguously designated the Vitulis, a population that inhabited the lands of current southern Calabria whose [[ethnonym]] was etymologically related to the word indicating the bull, an animal sacred to the Vitulis. The ancient Greek ''italós'' is of Italic derivation from the Osco-Umbrian ''uitlu'', precisely bull (see the Latin ''vitellus'', form with diminutive suffix meaning calf).<ref name="eccellenzemeridionali"/> ''Ouitoulía'' thus came to mean "land of the Vitulis" or "land of the bulls".<ref name="eccellenzemeridionali"/> In support of this hypothesis, it is highlighted that in the southern part of the Calabrian peninsula, and in the Sicilian coast of the [[Strait of Messina]], there are toponyms of [[Magna Graecia]] origin (some translated into Latin by the [[Normans]]) probably belonging to the most ancient etymology of the land of the bulls (of cattle). These include [[Tauriana]], a city destroyed by the [[Saracens]] in the 10th century whose name survives today in the municipalities of [[Gioia Tauro]], [[Taurianova]], and [[Terranova Sappo Minulio]], [[Bova, Calabria|Bova]], [[Bovalino]] and [[Itala, Sicily|Itala]].

The similarity with the name "Italy" of the last toponym, "Itala", is evident. Danish archaeologist and philologist [[Frederik Poulsen]], in a study on the origin of the name "Italia", claimed that it was used for the first time in the 5th century BC, precisely with reference to the territory south of [[Messina]] where Itala is situated and where a population of the [[Oenotrians]] lived, which had a bull as its emblem ("''Vitulus''").<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.messinaierieoggi.it/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=60&Itemid=186|title=Itala|access-date=5 November 2021|language=it}}</ref> With the arrival of the ancient Greeks, the consonant V was eliminated from the word ''Vitulus'', which disappeared in classical Greek, and only the word "''Itulus''" remained.<ref name="viaggioincoppia"/>

From the Oenotrians, the populations of the Italics, [[Morgetes]] and [[Sicels]] would then be distinguished. Subsequently, according to Poulsen, the name "Italy" was extended to the whole peninsula.

{{blockquote|Catch from the Oenotrians, formerly Oenotria: now, as it is famous, having taken the name of Italus, Italy is called|author=Virgil, ''[[Aeneid]]'' III, 165}}

Poulsen's thesis, however, seems to be questioned by the fact that the oldest documentable toponymic form for Itala is that of ''Gitala'', as shown by a donation diploma from Count Roger of 1093. The name would then undergo many variations over the centuries: ''Quitala'', ''Gitalas'', ''Gytalas'', ''Kitala'', ''Hitala'' and finally Itala.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Itala|author=Salvatore Vernaci|publisher=Armando Siciliano Editore|year=2011|isbn=978-88-7442-426-9}}</ref>

===Greek origin===
[[File:Italia colonie.jpg|upright=1.5|thumb|Italy according to the [[ancient Greeks]], corresponding to the current [[Calabria]]]]
In [[ancient Greek]] tradition the name revived the theory of expansion from south to north in that the [[ancient Greeks]] would gradually apply the name "Italy" to an ever wider region, until the time of the Roman conquest, when it was extended to the entire peninsula.<ref name="Guillotining"/>

For some linguists who supported this theory, the name would be based on a hypothetical ancient Greek form such as Aἰθαλία (''Aithalía'') which in its initial part Aith- (typical of words referring to fire) would contain a reference to the volcanic dimension of the lands of the peninsula. This meaning would resist for example in the name of [[Mount Etna|Etna]], in ancient Greek "''Aitna''". This proposal had already been advanced by Gabriele Rosa, according to whom the first ancient Greeks who arrived in the peninsula would have called it precisely:<ref>{{cite book|author=Gabriele Rosa|title=Le origini della civiltà in Europa |publisher=Editori del Politecnico|year=1863|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NoANAAAAQAAJ&q=rosa+le+origini+della+civilt%C3%A0+in+europa|access-date=31 December 2009|language=it}}</ref>

{{blockquote|Aιθαλια (Italy) volcanic, or flaming and sooty, for the same reason that the islands of [[Elba]] (Ilva), [[Lemnos]] and [[Chios]], full of forges, said Aιθαλια|author=Gabriele Rosa}}

Rosa, however, did not address and clarify the strictly linguistic arguments that had led him to such a solution, thus leaving his proposal in the pre-scientific dimension.<ref name="Manco"/>

It was mainly Silvestri who recovered this theory, assuming three ancient Greek or [[Proto-Greek language|Proto-Greek]] bases ("Aitalía", "Eitalía", and "Etalía") in order to give scientific basis to the proposal. According to this theory, Italy would originally have meant "fiery land", "land of the fiery sunset" (or "land of the West"), or "smoking land".<ref name= Silvestri>D. Silvestri, “Per una etimologia del nome Italia”, AIΩN-linguistica 22, 2000</ref>

For Felice Vinci, this solution would solve the problem of the long i [[Length (phonetics)|length]] of the word ''Italia'', that conflicts with the short i length of the word ''vitulus,'' word from that the [[Toponymy|toponym]] should derive according to the most credited theory. On the contrary, following the theory of the Greek origin, the long i quantity is not an exception, because it should derive from the Greek [[diphthong]] Aι.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Vinci |first=Felice |title=I segreti di Omero nel Baltico |publisher=Leg edizioni |year=2021 |location=Gorizia |pages=176 |language=it |trans-title=Homer secrets' in the Baltic Sea}}</ref>

===Etruscan origin===
This theory is opposed by that which, with a solution that has authoritative precedents and yet little remembered in its most recent revival, proposes an [[Etruscan civilization|Etruscan]] solution of the name of Italy;<ref>Massimo Pittau, “[http://www.pittau.it/comune/italia.htm Il nome dell'Italia è probabilmente etrusco]”, RION IX, 2003, 1</ref> it is a reconstruction that deems the "Greek" hypothesis inadmissible and implies conclusions symmetrically opposed to the latter, such as the fact that the name has spread from north to south.

===Oscan origin===
The ultimate etymology of the name is uncertain, in spite of numerous suggestions.<ref name="Manco"/> According to the most widely accepted explanation, Latin {{lang|la|Italia}}<ref>[[Oxford Latin Dictionary|OLD]], p. 974: "first syll. naturally short (cf. [[Quintilian|Quint.]] ''Inst.'' 1.5.18), and so scanned in <span style="font-variant:small-caps">[[Gaius Lucilius|Lucil.]]</span>825, but in dactylic verse lengthened ''metri gratia''."</ref> 
may derive from  [[Oscan language|Oscan]] ''víteliú'', meaning "[land] of young cattle" (cf. [[Latin]] ''vitulus'' "calf", [[Umbrian language|Umbrian]] ''vitlu''), via [[ancient Greek]] transmission (evidenced in the loss of initial [[digamma]]).<ref>J.P. Mallory and D.Q. Adams, ''Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture'' (London: Fitzroy and Dearborn, 1997), 24.</ref> The [[Bull (mythology)|bull]] was a symbol of the southern [[Italic tribes]] and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the [[Social War (91–88 BC)|Social War]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fucino.altervista.org/pagina-875319.html|title="Fucinus lacus" - Il primo prosciugamento|access-date=5 November 2021|language=it}}</ref> On the [[Coinage of the Social War (91–88 BC)|coinage of the Social War]], dating back to 90 BC, found in the ancient city of [[Corfinium]] (in [[Abruzzo]]), there is a personification of Italy as a goddess, accompanied by a legend that reproduces her name, <small>ITALIA</small>, in the [[Latin script|Latin alphabet]], or the equivalent <small>VITELIU</small><ref>[[Giacomo Devoto]], ''Gli antichi Italici'', [[Vallecchi]], 1931 (p. 116)</ref> (''Víteliú'' = Italy) in the Oscan alphabet. This is the first epigraphic testimony of the use of the name ''Italia''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.italiani.it/lo-sapevi-che-ci-sono-varie-ipotesi-sull-origine-del-nome-italia/|title=Lo sapevi che ci sono varie ipotesi sull'origine del nome "Italia"?|date=6 April 2019 |access-date=5 November 2021|language=it}}</ref>

===Semitic origin===
Another theory, rather contested, suggests that Italy derives from "Atalu", an [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] word ([[Semitic languages|Semitic language]] like [[Phoenician language|Phoenician]]) reconstructed by the scholar [[Giovanni Semerano]], which would mean "land of sunset".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.feltrinellieditore.it/news/2005/07/22/umberto-galimberti-allorigine-delle-parole--giovanni-semerano-5266/|title=Umberto Galimberti: All'origine delle parole. Giovanni Semerano|access-date=5 November 2021|language=it}}</ref>

[[Itamar Ben-Avi]], the son of linguist [[Eliezer Ben-Yehuda]] and the first modern native speaker of [[Modern Hebrew|Hebrew]], theorized that Italy derived from Hebrew — "I" ("אִי", "island"), "tal" ("טַל", "dew"), and "yam" ("יָם", "sea") — and that the name was pre-Latin and showed possible links between Etruscan and Hebrew cultures through the Mediterranean Sea.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Ben-Avi |first=Itamar |date=16 October 1929 |title=דרך ימנו העברי |pages=3 |work=Do'ar ha-yom (דאר היום) |url=https://www.nli.org.il/en/newspapers/dhy/1929/10/16/01 |access-date=20 September 2023}}</ref> Though this theory did not gain wide traction, it was also adopted by Zionist leader [[Ze'ev Jabotinsky]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kaplan |first=Eran |title=The Jewish Radical Right: Revisionist Zionism and its Ideological Legacy |publisher=University of Wisconsin Press |year=2005 |location=Madison, WI |pages=146, 204}}</ref>

===Conclusions===
It can be observed that the notion of Italy is a dynamic and plural notion, in progress until the 3rd century BC. In fact, in the conception of Italy a [[Magna Graecia|Greek Italy]] (limited to the southern Italy), another [[Etruscan civilization|Etruscan]] (separated from the [[Apennines]], from the [[Gauls|Gallic]] and ancient Greek world), and probably also a first [[Roman Italy]], which initially coincided with the large western coastal region between northern [[Etruria]] and the ''[[Ancient Campania|ager Campanus]]'', and which then absorbed the others.<ref>{{Cite book|author=Giovanni Brizzi|title=Roma. Potere e identità: dalle origini alla nascita dell'impero cristiano|year=2012|publisher=Patron|isbn=978-88-555-3153-5|language=it}}</ref>

==Evolution of the territory called "Italy"==
[[File:Regioni dell'Italia Augustea.svg|thumb|right|upright=1.5|[[Regions of Augustan Italy]]]]
''Italia'', the ancient name of the [[Italian Peninsula]], which is also eponymous of the [[Italian Republic|modern republic]], originally applied only to the "tip" of the Italian "boot" (in modern [[Calabria]]).<ref name="Guillotining"/>

According to [[Antiochus of Syracuse]], it included only the southern portion of the Bruttium peninsula:<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.arcaini.com/ITALY/ItalyHistory/OriginNameItaly.htm |title=The Origins of the Name 'Italy' |publisher=Arcaini.com |accessdate=2015-08-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923172942/http://www.arcaini.com/ITALY/ItalyHistory/OriginNameItaly.htm |archive-date=2015-09-23 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.passionforitaly.info/Articles/904.html |title=History of Calabria - Passion For Italy |publisher=Passionforitaly.info |date= |accessdate=2015-08-25}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bellevacanze.it/tourism/index.php?set_lang_id=en&view_contenuto=19 |title=+ nome + |publisher=Bellevacanze.it |date= |accessdate=2015-08-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160301084437/http://www.bellevacanze.it/tourism/index.php?set_lang_id=en&view_contenuto=19 |archive-date=2016-03-01 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5szMbqDSWg  |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/-5szMbqDSWg |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live|title=italian travel team Calabria - Italy Guide |publisher=YouTube |date=2011-03-01 |accessdate=2015-08-25}}{{cbignore}}</ref> the actual [[province of Reggio Calabria]] and part of the modern [[province of Catanzaro|provinces of Catanzaro]] and [[province of Vibo Valentia|Vibo Valentia]]. The town of Catanzaro has a road sign (in Italian) also stating this fact.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://procopiocaterina.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/20104251023251.jpg |format=JPG |title=Billboard image |publisher=Procopiocaterina.files.wordpress.com |accessdate=2015-08-25}}</ref> But by this time, [[Oenotria]] and Italy had become synonymous and the name also applied to most of [[Lucania]] as well. Coins bearing the name ''Víteliú'' in [[Oscan]] ({{Script|Ital|𐌅𐌝𐌕𐌄𐌋𐌉𐌞}}) were minted by an alliance of [[Ancient Italic peoples|Italic peoples]] ([[Sabines]], [[Samnites]], [[Umbrians]] and others) competing with Rome in the 1st century BC.<ref name="Guillotining"/>

The ancient [[Magna Graecia|Greeks]] gradually came to apply the name ''Italia'' to a larger region, but it was during the [[Roman Republic]], in 264 BC, that the territory called "Italy" was extended to the [[Italian Peninsula]] south of the [[Arno]] and [[Rubicon]] rivers. The northern area of [[Cisalpine Gaul]] came in the Roman sphere of influence in the 220s BC and became considered geographically and ''[[de facto]]'' part of Italy.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dSY-DwAAQBAJ&q=Tota+Italia+essays&pg=PT454 |title=The "Birth" of Italy: The Institutionalization of Italy as a Region, 3rd–1st Century BCE |isbn=978-3-11-054478-7 |last1=Carlà-Uhink |first1=Filippo |date=25 September 2017|publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG }}</ref> The borders of [[Roman Italy]], ''Italia'', are better established. Cato's ''[[Origines]]'', the first work of [[history]] composed in [[Latin]], described Italy as the entire peninsula south of the [[Alps]].<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dSY-DwAAQBAJ&q=cato+italy+south+of+the+Alps&pg=PT49 |title=The "Birth" of Italy: The Institutionalization of Italy as a Region, 3rd–1st Century BCE |isbn=978-3-11-054478-7 |last1=Carlà-Uhink |first1=Filippo |date=25 September 2017|publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG }}</ref> According to Cato and several Roman authors, the Alps formed the "walls of Italy".<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aLsRDAAAQBAJ&q=cato+walls+of+Italy&pg=PA108 |title=Livy on the Hannibalic War |isbn=978-0-19-815295-8 |last1=Levene |first1=D. S. |date=17 June 2010|publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref> The north, however, being a province, remained ''[[de jure]]'' separated from Italy in administrative matters for a longer period of time. It was legally merged into the administrative unit of Italy in 42 BC by the triumvir [[Augustus]], as planned by [[Julius Caesar]], who had already extended Roman citizenship to all of Cisalpine Gaul in 49 BC.<ref>Pallottino, M., History of Earliest Italy, trans. Ryle, M & Soper, K. in Jerome Lectures, Seventeenth Series, p. 50</ref> The term "Italy" also included Liguria up to the [[Var (river)|Varo river]] and Istria up to [[Pula|Pola]] and to the [[Raša (river)|Arsa river]].<ref name="StraboneItaliaV1.1"/> All its inhabitants were considered ''Italic'' and ''Roman''.<ref name="StraboneItaliaV1.1"/><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RPj_FkEeVO4C&q=beyond+the+Rubicon|title=Beyond the Rubicon: Romans and Gauls in Republican Italy - J. H. C. Williams - Google Books|date=22 May 2020|isbn=9780198153009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200522000630/https://books.google.it/books?id=RPj_FkEeVO4C&dq=beyond+the+Rubicon&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiI5YrC6rbkAhUvDmMBHXZOCMAQ6AEIKTAA|archive-date=22 May 2020|last1=Williams|first1=J. H. C.|publisher=Oxford University Press }}</ref><ref name=DRR>{{cite book |title=Decline of the Roman republic: Volume 2 |first=George |last=Long |year=1866 |place=London}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Cassius |first1=Dio |author-link=Cassius Dio |title=Historia Romana |volume=41 |at=36}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Laffi |first1=Umberto |title=La provincia della Gallia Cisalpina |date=1992 |journal=Athenaeum |issue=80 |pages=5–23 |language=it}}</ref><ref name=au>{{cite web |last1=Aurigemma |first1=Salvatore |title=Gallia Cisalpina |url=http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/gallia-cisalpina_(Enciclopedia-Italiana)/ |website=www.treccani.it |publisher=Enciclopedia Italiana |access-date=14 October 2014 |language=it}}</ref>

Under Emperor [[Diocletian]] the administrative Roman region of "Italia" was further enlarged with the addition in 292 AD of the three big islands of the western [[Mediterranean Sea]]: [[Sicily]] (with the [[Maltese archipelago]]), [[Sardinia]] and [[Corsica]], coinciding with the whole [[Italian geographical region]].<ref name=Treccani />

Indeed, under Diocletian Italy became the '''Dioecesis Italiciana''. It also included southern [[Raetia]] (actual [[Switzerland]] and parts of [[Austria]]). It was subdivided into the following provinces:

*''Liguria'' (today's [[Liguria]] and western [[Piedmont]])
* ''Transpadana'' (eastern Piedmont and [[Lombardy]])
* ''Rhaetia'' (eastern Switzerland, western and central Austria and part of northeastern Italy)
* ''Venetia et Histria'' (today's [[Veneto]], [[Friuli-Venezia Giulia]] and [[Trentino-Alto Adige]] and [[Istria]])
* ''Aemilia'' ([[Emilia-Romagna]])
* ''Tuscia'' ([[Etruria]]) ''et Umbria'' ([[Tuscany]] and [[Umbria]])
* ''Flaminia'' ([[Picenum]] and the former [[Ager Gallicus]], in today's [[Marche]])
* ''Latium et Campania'' (the coastal parts of [[Lazio]] and [[Campania]]) 
* ''Samnium'' ([[Abruzzo]], [[Molise]] and [[Irpinia]])
* ''Apulia et Calabria'' (today's [[Apulia]])
* ''Lucania et Bruttium'' ([[Basilicata]] and [[Calabria]])
* ''Sicilia'' ([[Sicily]] and [[Malta]])
* ''[[Corsica and Sardinia|Corsica et Sardinia]]''

[[File:Italia Dioceses in 400 AD.png|thumb|upright=1.5|''Italia annonaria'' and ''Italia suburbicaria'' under [[Constantine the Great]]]]
[[Constantine the Great|Constantine]] subdivided the Empire into four [[praetorian prefecture]]s. The ''Diocesis Italiciana'' became the [[Praetorian prefecture of Italy]] (''praefectura praetoria Italiae''), and was subdivided into two dioceses. It still included [[Raetia]]. The two dioceses and their provinces were:

*''Diocesis Italia annonaria'' (Italy of the [[Cura Annonae|annona]] - its inhabitants had the obligation to provide the court, the administration and the troops, first allocated in Milan and then in Ravenna, supplies, wine and timber)<ref>{{cite book | author=Salvatore Cosentino| title=Storia dell'Italia bizantina (VI-XI secolo): da Giustiniano ai Normanni | publisher=Bononia University Press | year=2008| isbn=9788873953609 |language=it|page=19}}</ref>
**''Alpes Cottiae'' (modern [[Liguria]] and western part of [[Piedmont]])
** ''Liguria'' (western [[Lombardy]] and eastern part of Piedmont)
** ''Venetia et Histria'' ([[Istria]] [which is now part of [[Croatia]], [[Slovenia]] and Italy], [[Friuli-Venezia Giulia]], [[Trentino-Alto Adige]], [[Veneto]] and eastern and central Lombardy)
** ''Raetia I'' (eastern Switzerland and western Austria)
** ''Rhaetia II'' (central Austria, part of southern Germany, and part of northeastern Italy) 
** ''Aemilia'' (the Emilia part of [[Emilia-Romagna]])
** ''Flaminia et Picenum Annonarium'' ([[Romagna]] and northern [[Marche]])
*''Diocesis Italia suburbicaria'' (Italy "under the government of the ''[[wikt:urbs|urbs]]''", i.e. Rome)
** ''Tuscia'' ([[Etruria]]) ''et Umbria'' ([[Tuscany]], [[Umbria]] and the northern part of coastal [[Lazio]])
** ''Picenum suburbicarium'' ([[Ascoli Piceno|Piceno]], in southern [[Marche]])
** ''Valeria'' [[Sabina (region)|Sabina]] (the modern [[province of Rieti]], other areas of Lazio and areas of [[Umbria]] and [[Abruzzo]])
** ''Campania'' (central and southern coastal [[Lazio]] and coastal [[Campania]] except for the modern [[province of Salerno]])
** ''Samnium'' ([[Abruzzo]], [[Molise]] and the mountain areas of modern Campania; i.e., the modern provinces of [[Province of Benevento|Benevento]] and [[Province of Avellino|Avellino]] and part of the [[province of Caserta]])
** ''Apulia et Calabria'' (today's [[Apulia]])
** ''Lucania et Bruttium (''modern [[Calabria]], [[Basilicata]] and the [[province of Salerno]] in modern Campania)
** ''Sicilia'' ([[Sicily]] and [[Malta]])
** ''[[Sardinia]]''
** ''[[Corsica]]''

The Latin term ''Italicus'' was used to describe "a man of Italy" as opposed to a [[Roman province|provincial]].  For example, [[Pliny the Elder]] notably wrote in a letter ''Italicus es an provincialis''? meaning "are you an Italian or a provincial?".<ref>''Letters'' 9.23</ref>
The adjective ''italianus'', from which are derived the Italian (and also French and English) name of the [[Italians]], is [[Middle Latin|medieval]] and was used alternatively with Italicus during the [[early modern period]].<ref>''ytaliiens'' (1265) [http://www.cnrtl.fr/etymologie/italien TLFi] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181029191636/http://www.cnrtl.fr/etymologie/italien |date=29 October 2018 }}</ref>

After the [[fall of the Western Roman Empire]], which was caused by the invasion of the [[Ostrogoths]], the [[Kingdom of Italy (Ostrogothic)|Kingdom of Italy]] was created. After the [[Lombards|Lombard]] invasions, "Italia" was retained as the name for [[Kingdom of the Lombards|their kingdom]], and for its [[Kingdom of Italy (Holy Roman Empire)|successor kingdom]] within the [[Holy Roman Empire]], which nominally lasted until 1806, although it had ''[[de facto]]'' disintegrated due to [[Guelphs and Ghibellines|factional politics]] pitting the empire against the ascendant [[Italian city-states|city republics]] in the 13th century.<ref>{{in lang|it}} [http://www.homolaicus.com/storia/medioevo/comune_medievale.htm Italian "Comuni"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120318214257/http://www.homolaicus.com/storia/medioevo/comune_medievale.htm |date=2012-03-18 }}</ref>

==See also==
*[[History of Italy]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.yourguidetoitaly.com/origin-of-the-name-italy.html Origin of the name "Italia"]

{{Europe topic|Name of|title=Names of European states and territories}}
{{Italy topics}}

[[Category:History of Italy]]
[[Category:Country name etymology|Italy]]