Iambic Verse

Poetical satires written in Iambics , or two-syllable foot measure, were originally so called after Iambe, an attendant upon one of the queens of Sparta, who kept a commonplace book of lively, free, and satirical pieces. Iberia. The ancient name of Spain, from the Iberi , its original inhabitants. These were maritime adventurers from Phœnicia who penetrated the country by way of the River Ebro. When in course of time the Celts descended upon them from the Pyrenees, they spread themselves to the south and west. On reaching the sea at the farthest limit of their wanderings they imagined themselves at the end of the world, and so gave the name of Iber , a Phœnician word of that import, to the country. Its principal eastern river, the Ebro, retains the original name.