IONIA. 734 IONIAN SEA. Oreecp, ^os iimintaiiicd that the name is derived from the A.sintic tribe whioh they t'ound in oc- cupation of till' coast. Curtius's view, though held by Holm in liis History of Orcccc, is now generally disiredited. nor is Hury's theory us yet more than an ingenious hypothesis. That the race was oomposecl of many elements cannot be doubted, and indeed was recojrnized by the CJreeks themselves. Herodotus, while detining lonians ;!•< those who traced their origin to Attica, and celebrated the festival of the Apa- turia (see Greek KESTlVAiji), admits that neither Ephesus nor Colophon kept this fe.ist. a fact which seems to indicate a considerable for- eign element in these cities. In art, literature, and philosophy, Ionia enjoyed deserved distinc- tion. Her great names are. among others, Mimnermus, Anacreon of Teos, Tliales, Apelles. Parrhasius. Zeuxis, and others mentioned under Ionian School. Consult the histories of Greece, especially those of Husolt and Kd. Meyer, in (Icschichte dcs Allcrlums, vol. ii. (Halle, 1804) ; also Curtiua, Vie lonier vor der ionixclien Miinderiing (Berlin. 1855) ; Ed. Meyer, Forschungvn zur oltrn Geschichle, vol. i. (Halle, 18921 : Uurv, in English Hisloricnl Review (Lon- don. IS'.IO)." lONTA. A city Snd the county-seat of Ionia County, Mich., .34 miles east of Grand Rapids; on the Grand River, and on the Detroit. Grand Haven and Milwaukee and the Pere Mar- quette niilroads (ilap: Michigan. II 6). It is .surrounded by a farming and lumbering section. and has wagon-works, car-shops, and shirt and clothing factories. The State lloiisp of Correc- tion and the State .sylum are situated here. Ionia was laid out in IS."?."?, and incorporated in 1873. I'nder the revised charter of 180" tli.! government is administered by an annually elected mayor, and a unicameral council, of which the executive is a member. The city owns and operates its water-works. Population, in 1890, 4482; in 1 000, 5200. IONIAN ISLANDS. A collective name given to till- i>land- in the Ionian Sea (together with the island of Cerigo farther south) belong- ing to Greece. They consist of six principal and a large numlMT of smaller islands, and fall mainly into three groups (ilap: Greeee. R •'•)• The first and northernmost group lies off the west coast of Epirus. and consists of Corfu and the lit- tle island of Paxos; the second group lies around the entrance to the Gulf of Corinth, and consists of Santa Maura, Ithaca. Cephalonia. and Zante; the third group, consisting of Cerigo and its de- pendent islets, lies southeast of the Morea. The distame from the mainland to Santa Maura, the nearest of the larger islands, is .s<ircely more than a mile, while the distance to Cephalonia is 22 miles. There is little geographical imity between the islands; for geographical deserip- tions. .see articles on the separate islands. Politi- cally the western groups form the three nomar- chies of Corfu, Cephalonia, and Zante. while Cerigo belongs to the nomarehy of .rgolis. Their combined area is HIT square miles, and their population in 189G was 266,223. The collective term 'Ionian' is of modern date. After the division of the Roman Empire these islands were included in the eastern half, the Byzantine Empire, and so continued till 1081, when they fell into the power of Robert Guiscard, the Xorman ruler of Apulia and Calabria. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the pos- session of the islan<ls «as disputed by the Vene- tians, the rulers of Naples, and the Greek' and Italian corsairs of the Mediterranean. In 1386, however, Venice obtained possession of Corfu, the most important of the islands. By conquest and purchase, the other islands of the Ionian group were acquired by the Republic, Cerigo, the last. l)eing taken from the Turks in 1717. The islands were taken by France when Bonaparte ex- tinguished the Venetian Republic in 1707. They were seized by Russia and Turkey in 1700. but were returned to France under the arrangement made in the Peace of Tilait in 1807. Zantc, Cephalonia. and Cerigo were seized by IJreat Britain in 1800. though Corfu did not yield till 1815. The islands were reconstituted a re- public under a British protectorate. The guv- ernment was coni|)osed of the British high com- missioner anil an assembly composed of two chambers, the Senate of six, the ]>egislative As- sembly of forty members. Up to 1848 the press was restricteil. and the tJovemment was really a despotism, but in that and the following year widespread dislike of the English (lov- ernment became apparent. To remove what were supposed to Ix- grievances. Lord Scaton, then high commissioner, introduced sweep- ing changes in the Constitution, including vote by ballot, lowering of the franiliise. and freedom of the press. A demand was then made for annexation to the Kingdom of fireeee. and an insurrection broke out in .ugust. 1840, in Cepha- lonia. It was suppressed by Sir Henn' Ward, who had succeeded I>ord 8<'aton. Fresh con- cessions were granted, but without appeasing the malcontents. In 18.')8 Mr. Gladstone was sent as .1 special commissioner to the islands, and he reported against their cession to llreece. There was no great desire, however, on the part of the English Government to continue their connection with the Ionian Islands. They had cost the United Kingdom £100,000 per annum, and had been a continual sourc-e of annoyance. In 1863 the election of Prince tJeorge of Denmark as constitutional King of Greece gave England an op|)orlunity of getting rid of this troublesome dcj>en<lency. In that year the Parliament of the islands proclaimed their annexation to (Ireecc. On March 20. 1864, a treaty was concluded at London, by which this annexation was consum- mated, and on May 30th formal possession was taken by the Greek authorities. In Feb- niary. 1807. the islands were visited by a series of earthquakes, most violent in Cephalonia. where they caused great destruction of life and prop- erty, and almost destroyed the two chief towns. See" Greece. IONIAN SCHOOL. The earliest school of Greek pliilo~o[iliy. represented by Tbales. . axi- mander, and .Anaximenes of Miletus, and Hera- clitus of Ephesus. Its chief problem was the .search for the first principle in nature, which different exponents of the school found in water, fire, air, or atoms. IONIAN SEA. The name of that part of the Mediterranean which separates Southern Italy and Sicily from Albania and Greece (Map: Greece. A 3). It is connected with the .Adriatic by the Strait of Otranto. Its main arm is the Gulf of Taranto, between the Calabrian Peninsula
