Why Italy

When did Italy actually start to be called Italy?

I am currently watching the show The Tudors (by Showtime) and have noticed that they refer to Italy as a country. I know that Italy was a kingdom as of 1861 but I wanted to know if it was actually the name of the area prior to this time or if the show is just incorrect. I know its just a TV show, I just like to know these random things. Any help?

Public Comments

1. Were they ordering Italian subs?
2. When the word Coward became unfashionable
3. The name "Italia" has been around at least since the first century BC.
4. From Italian Italia < Latin Ītalia, via Greek from Oscan Víteliú (a name for the southwestern tip of the boot of Italy), meaning "land of bulls" in Oscan; usually assumed to be a cognate of vitulus (“‘calf’”), despite the different length of the i. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Italy Etymology: L Italia, altered, prob. by Greeks living in S Italy < earlier (prob. Oscan) Víteliú; orig. used only of the SW point of the peninsula http://www.yourdictionary.com/italy Italy (Italia), a word perhaps meaning ‘land of calves’ (as if from Vitelia; Lat. vitulus, ‘calf’); the name appears to have been originally applied to the southern half of the toe of Italy. By 450 BC it meant all of the south-west peninsula (now Calabria), subsequently inhabited by the Bruttii, and by 400 it also included Lucania (the mountainous district of south Italy north of Calabria). By the third century BC it meant the whole Italian peninsula south of Liguria and Cisalpine Gaul. After the death of Julius Caesar in 44 BC Cisalpine Gaul too became part of Italy. At the beginning of historical times, at the end of the sixth century BC, the Italian peninsula as a whole was inhabited by a variety of races: Celts in the north, Etruscans south of these, Greeks in the south of the peninsula, and in the centre an agglomeration of kindred tribes, Umbrians, Sabellians, Oscans, and Latins. # Italy was the core of the Roman Republic and Roman Empire from the fourth century b.c. to the fifth century a.d. The fame of Virgil the Poet was so great in ancient Italy that in due time his name became synonymous with fame itself. From that it was a short step to the attribution of supernatural power, and Virgil the Roman poet became in the popular mind a medieval enchanter. His myth is symptomatic of magic in medieval Italy as a whole and is therefore described here at some length. Etymology The origin of the term Italy (It: Italia), from Latin Italia,[5] is uncertain. According to one of the more common explanations, the term was borrowed through Greek, from Oscan Víteliú, meaning "land of young cattle" (cf. Lat vitulus "calf", Umb vitlo "calf") and named for the god of cattle, Mars.[6] The bull was a symbol of the southern Italian tribes and is often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Samnite Wars. The name Italia applied to a part of what is now southern Italy. According to Antiochus of Syracuse, it originally only referred to the southern portion of the Bruttium peninsula (modern Calabria), but by his time Oenotrians and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name "Italia" to a larger region, but it was not until the time of the Roman conquests that the term was expanded to cover the entire peninsula.[7] http://www.answers.com/Italy
5. Hi, i'm italian. The italy start to be called Italy when it win the second indipendence war (1859), because befor this war the italy was divided in little nations. CIAO A TUTTI E VIVA L'ITALIA, UN PO' ANCHE L'AMERICA, MA VIVA L'ITALIAAAAAAA!