Venetian rule in the Ionian Islands individually and collectively, by various names. After Venice captured Cephalonia on 24 December 1500, the administration of the defense of all the islands was delegated to an official seated in Corfu. This official was being referred to as "the General ' of the Three Islands" (') and resided at the fortress of Angelokastro from 1387 to the end of the 16th century. The "Three Islands" refer to Corfu, Zante and Cephalonia. The Venetian equivalent for "Ionian Islands" is ', the Italian being ' and the Greek in Modern Greek and in . Below are the seven principal islands from north
Ionic Greek and on the large island of Euboea north of Athens. The dialect was soon spread by Ionian colonization to areas in the northern Aegean, the Black Sea, and the western Mediterranean. The Ionic dialect is generally divided into two major time periods, Old Ionic (or Old Ionian) and New Ionic (or New Ionian). The transition between the two is not clearly defined, but 600 BC is a good approximation. The works of Homer ("The Iliad", "The Odyssey", and the Homeric Hymns) and of Hesiod were written in a literary dialect called Homeric Greek or Epic Greek, which largely comprises Old