The name Italy, according to historians, derives from the word Italòi, a term with which the ancient Greeks designated the Vituli, a people who lived at the far tip of our peninsula, in its narrowest part, near present-day Catanzaro.
Until the beginning of the 5th century BC, the name Italy referred only to present-day Calabria; later, the name was extended to the entire southern part of the peninsula. During the 4th century BC, the name Italy extended as far as Tuscany. Then, in the early decades of the 3rd century BC, when the entire peninsula, from the Arno to the Strait of Messina, was administratively and militarily unified under Roman rule, the name Italy embraced the entire peninsula within its geographical limits. Finally, the conquest of the Po Valley territory and the awareness of the peninsula's geographical unity meant that, during the 2nd century BC, the name Italy, while strictly retaining its political meaning up to the Tuscan limit of the Arno River, in fact extended to the entire territory between the Alps and the two Italian seas, the Adriatic and the Tyrrhenian.
The first evidence of this broader use of the name Italy is found in Polybius and Cato. The official extension of the name to the entire peninsula was accomplished when Octavian, in 42 BC, abolished the Cisalpine province created by Sulla and included northern Italy in his division into regions. The administrative union of Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica, which until then had formed a separate province, with Italy occurred only with Diocletian, who included the three islands in the "Italic diocese." Many writers and politicians have recalled, over time, the origins of the name Italy: Antiochus of Syracuse (5th century BC), regarding the Brutium, wrote "the entire land, one hundred and sixty stadia wide, between the two sea gulfs, the Nepetinus and the Scilletinus, was brought under the power of a good and wise man, who convinced his neighbors, some with words, others by force. This man was called Italus, who first named this land Italy," and again Aristotle, in the seventh book of Politics, writes "a certain Italus became king of the Enotrians, from whom, changing the name, they would be called Italians instead of Enotrians. It is also said that this Italus transformed the Enotrians, who were nomads, into farmers and gave them other laws and first instituted the sissitia. For this reason, even today, some populations descended from him practice the sissitia and observe some of his laws."
Again Aristotle, same source, "Italus, King of the Enotrians, from him, later, they took the name Italians and Italy, the extreme tip bounded by the two gulfs." Herodotus (5th century BC), the great historian who conceived history as personal research and exploration of other cultures, was the first to use the name "Italy" to indicate the southern part of the peninsula, that is, the ancient Bruttium inhabited by the Italians: Bruttium corresponded, geographically, to present-day central Calabria, according to what was also handed down by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Thucydides, and Virgil; the latter, in his Aeneid, writes "a part of Europe, which the Greeks called Hesperia, ancient, warlike, fertile land. First cultivated by the Enotrians, it was called Enotria, now, as is said, it took its name from Italus, it is called Italy. This is the land destined for us."
How much historical truth there is, between myth and legend, in wanting to identify the Isthmus of Catanzaro as the geographical place where the name Italy was born is difficult to affirm; however, the historical sources, even if remote, of illustrious figures we have mentioned, who testify to its primacy, remain indisputable. This version is also confirmed by the authoritative Accademia della Crusca which, called to rule on the subject, thus pronounced: "Italy is a name of classical tradition, originally referring to the southern tip of Calabria; it then extends to the peninsula with the advance of the Roman conquest. The official sanction of the name comes with Octavian in 42 BC, while the administrative union with the islands comes with Diocletian (Italic diocese)."
Catanzaro, with its Isthmus, is the narrowest point of the Italian peninsula and this has favored myths, agriculture, trade, and civilization since the most distant antiquity.
It is one of the few Italian provinces to have two seas, less than 30 kilometers apart, and this could lead to a "Festival of the Two Seas" by organizing, for example, an "Isthmus Marathon" or Two Seas Marathon, at an international level, to attract tourism as only sport and running in particular can do, as taught by a recent marathon held in the city. Also encouraging and relaunching the initiative of the "Path of the First Italy," which was very successful in its first edition, in September 2020, from Squillace Lido to Curinga Mare, using old paths with adequately equipped rest areas. Being the territory of the First Italy is a unique value in the world to be well used and enhanced as a tourist promotion and more.
The City of Catanzaro recalls, with a page on its official website, that it is here that the name Italy was born and this alone could be enough to make it a true attraction, both tourist and cultural, since every peculiarity, characteristic, myth, legend, or memory of a territory can be transformed, if properly exploited, into added value, creating, with the economic impact it produces, jobs and well-being for the entire community.
Nando Castagna