ITALY ĭt’ ə lĭ (̓Ιταλία, G2712). The name Italy prob. derives from the Italic vitulus, an ox or calf. It was originally, in its Gr. form Italia, applied to the southern tip or “toe” of the peninsula, and then extended step by step with the unification of the peninsula under Rom. power. Northern Italy, Cisalpine Gaul, was not incorporated and included under the name until Augustus’ time. It was only then that Italy first reached its Alpine frontiers. The leg-shaped peninsula is 700 m. long and in breadth never more than 150 m., except in the northern plain. The Alps form a northern barrier, but not impassable, as Hannibal demonstrated. The northern plain, wide open to invasion, lies between the Alps and the Apennines. This chain branches from the Alps near Genoa, thus eastward to bound old Cisalpine Gaul, rises in height, and sweeps southeastward toward the Adriatic coast, and forms a spine for the peninsula. The mountains, and the plains which they enclose, form the Italian landscape, the former beautiful but infertile, the latter rich and productive, and well watered. Timber, in early days, was abundant, and Italy has always grown the olive and the vine, temperate fruits, and cereals in rich quantity. Hence the attraction that the peninsula held for invaders, the Etruscans from Asia Minor, the Latins, Oscans, and Umbrians, three branches of Indo-European stock, and other groups of migrants, including the founders of the chain of Gr. cities around the southern coasts. The Lat. stock, from their enclave around the Tiber, prevailed. Seven centuries of expansion resulted in Rome’s political unification of the most strategically located of the Mediterranean peninsulas, the key, as demonstrated from the days of Carthage to the Second World War, to the possession of the central Mediterranean.

Italy is mentioned three times in the NT: twice by Luke (Acts 18:2; 27:1), and once by the author of Hebrews, who sent greetings from Italian friends to the recipients of his epistle (Heb 13:24).