Balearic Isles

Balearic Isles, a group—Majorca (q.v.), Minorca (q.v.), Iviza (q.v.), with Formentera, Cabrera, and several smaller islets—lying off the coast of Valencia. They form a province of Spain (q.v.), having been successively Carthaginian, Roman, independent (1220–1344), and a dependency of Aragon (from 1349). The Baleures were famous slingers; and their name was derived by the ancients from the Greek ballein, 'to throw.'