§1.35.1Ἰταλία δὲ ἀνὰ χρόνον ὠνομάσθη ἐπʼ ἀνδρὸς δυνάστου ὄνομα Ἰταλοῦ.
In course of time, Italy was named after a ruler named Italus.
τοῦτον δέ φησιν Ἀντίοχος ὁ Συρακούσιος ἀγαθὸν καὶ σοφὸν γεγενημένον καὶ τῶν πλησιοχώρων τοὺς μὲν λόγοις ἀναπείθοντα, τοὺς δὲ βίᾳ προσαγόμενον, ἅπασαν ὑφʼ ἑαυτῷ ποιήσασθαι τὴν γῆν ὅση ἐντὸς ἦν τῶν κόλπων τοῦ τε Ναπητίνου καὶ τοῦ Σκυλλητίνου· ἣν δὴ πρώτην κληθῆναι Ἰταλίαν ἐπὶ τοῦ Ἰταλοῦ.
Antiochus of Syracuse says that this man, having become good and wise, and persuading some of his neighbors by words and bringing others over by force, made subject to himself all the land that lay within the Napetine and the Scylletine gulfs; and that this land was the first to be called Italy after Italus.
ἐπεὶ δὲ ταύτης καρτερὸς ἐγένετο καὶ ἀνθρώπους πολλοὺς εἶχεν ὑπηκόους αὑτῷ, αὐτίκα τῶν ἐχομένων ἐπορέγεσθαι καὶ πόλεις συνάγεσθαι πολλάς· εἶναι δʼ αὐτὸν Οἴνωτρον τὸ γένος.
And when he had become master of this land and had many men subject to him, he immediately reached out for the neighboring territories and brought many cities under his control; and that he was by birth an Oenotrian.
§1.35.2Ἑλλάνικος δὲ ὁ Λέσβιός φησιν Ἡρακλέα τὰς Γηρυόνου βοῦς ἀπελαύνοντα εἰς Ἄργος, ἐπειδή τις αὐτῷ δάμαλις ἀποσκιρτήσας τῆς ἀγέλης ἐν Ἰταλίᾳ ἐόντι ἤδη φεύγων διῆρε τὴν ἀκτὴν καὶ τὸν μεταξὺ διανηξάμενος πόρον τῆς θαλάττης εἰς Σικελίαν ἀφίκετο, ἐρόμενον ἀεὶ τοὺς ἐπιχωρίους καθʼ οὓς ἑκάστοτε γίνοιτο διώκων τὸν δάμαλιν, εἴ πη τις αὐτὸν ἑωρακὼς εἴη, τῶν τῇδε ἀνθρώπων Ἑλλάδος μὲν γλώττης ὀλίγα συνιέντων, τῇ δὲ πατρίῳ φωνῇ κατὰ τὰς μηνύσεις τοῦ ζῴου καλούντων τὸν δάμαλιν οὐίτουλον, ὥσπερ καὶ νῦν λέγεται, ἐπὶ τοῦ ζῴου τὴν χώραν ὀνομάσαι §1.35.3πᾶσαν ὅσην ὁ δάμαλις διῆλθεν Οὐιτουλίαν. μεταπεσεῖν δὲ ἀνὰ χρόνον τὴν ὀνομασίαν εἰς τὸ νῦν σχῆμα οὐδὲν θαυμαστόν, ἐπεὶ καὶ τῶν Ἑλληνικῶν πολλὰ τὸ παραπλήσιον πέπονθεν ὀνομάτων.
Hellanicus of Lesbos says that Heracles, while driving Geryon's cattle to Argos, when a calf slipped away from his herd while he was already in Italy, and fleeing, traversed the peninsula and swimming across the intervening strait of the sea, arrived in Sicily, asking the inhabitants everywhere he came in his pursuit of the calf if anyone had seen it anywhere, and since the people there understood little of the Greek tongue, but in their native language called the calf, according to the indications of the animal, "vitulus" (as it is still called now), he named after the animal the whole country which the calf had traversed "Vitulia." And it is no wonder that in course of time the name changed into its present form, since many of the Greek names also have undergone a similar change.
πλὴν εἴτε ὡς Ἀντίοχός φησιν ἐπʼ ἀνδρὸς ἡγεμόνος, ὅπερ ἴσως καὶ πιθανώτερόν ἐστιν, εἴθʼ ὡς Ἑλλάνικος οἴεται ἐπὶ τοῦ ταύρου τὴν ὀνομασίαν ταύτην ἔσχεν, ἐκεῖνό γε ἐξ ἀμφοῖν δῆλον, ὅτι κατὰ τὴν Ἡρακλέους ἡλικίαν ἢ μικρῷ πρόσθεν οὕτως ὠνομάσθη.
At any rate, whether it received this name from a ruler, as Antiochus says (which is perhaps more probable), or from the bull, as Hellanicus thinks, this much at least is clear from both accounts: that it was so named in the time of Heracles or a little before.
τὰ δὲ πρὸ τούτων Ἕλληνες μὲν Ἑσπερίαν καὶ Αὐσονίαν αὐτὴν ἐκάλουν, οἱ δʼ ἐπιχώριοι Σατορνίαν, ὡς εἴρηταί μοι πρότερον.
But before that, the Greeks called it Hesperia and Ausonia, and the inhabitants Saturnia, as I have said before.