KITTIM (Kittijjim, in Jer. 2, 10). - The gentilic name of the inhabitants of Cyprus ([v.], cf. Is. 23, 1, 12; Ex. 27, 6 and probably Jer. 2, 10), so called from the important city of Kition or Kition (Lat. Citium), one of the most notable colonies founded by the Phoenicians. By extension, the name was applied to the islands and coasts of the eastern Mediterranean and, in general, to the peoples of the West, whose ships had to put in at Kition. Alexander the Macedonian is said to have come from K. (1 Macc. 1, 1), and Perseus is presented as king of the K. (ibid. 8, 5).
In the manuscripts of 'Ajn Feshah, the apocryphal work known as the War of the Sons of Light against the Sons of Darkness designates the Seleucids and the Ptolemies as K. Under the influence of the Targum (Gen. 10, 14; 1 Chron. 1, 7), the Vulgate translates K. as “Italy” in Balaam’s oracle (Num. 24, 24) and as “the Romans” (Septuagint ‘Poetai’) in Dan. 11, 30.