Italy: what’s in a name?
In 2021, Italy marks its 160th Anniversary as a unified independent country. On the 17th of March 1861 Victor Emanuel II was crowned King of Italy. But why “Italy”? Like any such research, much is lost to myth and hear-say, but we know that it was Emperor Augustus who formally gave the land we know as Italy its name in 42AD, and some time later, in 292AD, Emperor Diocletian made it an actual administrative union (also including the islands), and the name stuck for a couple of thousand years and counting.READ MORE