IAPYGIANS, The.
See ITALY, ANCIENT;
also, ŒNOTRIANS.
IAZYGES, OR JAZYGES, The.
See LIMIGANTES.
IBERA, Battle at.
See PUNIC WAR, THE SECOND.
IBERIANS, The eastern.
"The Sapeires [of Herodotus] appear to be the Iberians of
later writers. The name is found under the various forms of
Saspeires, Sapeires, Sabeires, or Sabeiri, and Abeires, whence
the transition to Iberes is easy. They are always represented
as adjoining on the Colchians to the east and southeast, so
that they must evidently have inhabited the greater part of
the modern province of Georgia. … There is reason to believe
that the modern Georgians—still called 'Virk' by their
neighbours—are their descendants, and preserve, in the
original seat of the nation, a name and a nationality which
have defied the destroying touch of time for more than
twenty-four centuries."
_G. Rawlinson,
History of Herodotus,
book 7, appendix 1._
See, also, ALARODIANS.
If these Iberians of the east were connected in race or origin
of name with the Iberians of western Europe, the connection
does not seem to have been traced. Iberia was devastated and
subjugated by the Seljuk Turks in the 11th century.
See TURKS (SELJUKS): A. D. 1063-1073.
IBERIANS, The western.
"The numerous skulls obtained from Basque cemeteries possess
exactly those characters which have been remarked … in the
Neolithic tombs and caves in Britain and on the Continent, and
may therefore be taken to imply that the Basque-speaking
peoples are to be looked upon as a fragment of the race which
occupied the British isles, and the area west of the Rhine and
north of the Alps, in the Neolithic age. … Nor can there be
any reasonable doubt as to this small, dark-haired people
being identical with the ancient Iberians of history, who have
left their name in the Iberian peninsula [Spain] as a mark of
their former dominion in the west. … In ancient times they
were spread through Spain as far to the south as the Pillars
of Hercules, and as far to the north-east as Germany and
Denmark. The Iberic population of the British Isles was
apparently preserved from contact with other races throughout
the whole of the Neolithic age. On the Continent, however, it
is not so; a new set of men, differing in physical
characteristics from them, make their appearance. … The new
invader is identified by Thurnam and Huxley with the Celtæ of
history. … These two races were in possession of Spain
during the very earliest times recorded in history, the
Iberians occupying the north-western region, and the Celts, or
Gauls, extending in a broad band south of the Pyrenees along
the Mediterranean shore. … In the north the Vascones then,
as now, held the Basque provinces of Spain. The distribution
of these two races in Gaul is similar to that which we have
noted in Spain. … When Cæsar conquered Gaul, the Iberian
Aquitani possessed the region bounded by the river Garonne,
the Cevennes, and the Pyrenees. … An ethnological connection
also between Aquitaine and Brittany (Armorica) may be inferred
from the remark of Pliny, 'Aquitania Armorica ante dicta.' …
Just as the Celts pushed back the Iberian population of Gaul
as far south as Aquitania, and swept round it into Spain, so
they crossed the channel and overran the greater portion of
Britain, until the Silures, identified by Tacitus with the
Iberians, were left only in those fastnesses which were
subsequently a refuge for the Welsh against the English
invaders."
_W. B. Dawkins,
Early Man in Britain,
chapter 9._
ALSO IN:
_I. Taylor,
Origin of the Aryans,
chapter 2, section 5._
See CELTS; LIGURIANS;
AQUITAINE: THE ANCIENT TRIBES;
AND PORTUGAL: EARLY HISTORY;
and, also, volume 1, APPENDIX A.