ISSUE ISTHMIAN GAMES 437 suit. When in the course of their alternate pleadings the parties have reached a specific matter which one of them affirms but the other denies, they are said to be at issue, or, in the ancient language of the law, ad exitum, or at the end of their pleadings. An issue may be either of law or of fact. When a defendant de- murs to the plaintiff's allegation, that is, denies its sufficiency as matter of law to support the plaintiff's action, he is said to tender an issue in law, and the other party is compelled to accept it. But if the defendant traverse the plaintiff's fact and propose to refer the matter disputed to some mode of trial, he tenders an issue of fact. The plaintiff may demur to the traverse or may join issue ; indeed, he must do so when the issue is well tendered. An issue of fact is properly framed upon a direct negation or denial of an averment. As the object is to reach the precise and essential subject for decision, the pleadings should develop some matter either of law or fact which, when decided, shall dis- pose of the whole controversy. They must therefore be directed not merely to the produc- tion of an issue, but to the production of one which is material. For issue joined upon an immaterial point, that is, a point not decisive of the right of the case, is fatally defective, and judgment upon any verdict found will be ar- rested by the court. Further, as in respect to any single subject of suit the decision of one material point may decide the action, it has be- come a rule that the pleadings shall tend not only to materiality, but also to singleness in the issue ; in other words, no plea may allege sev- eral distinct matters, when any one of these would singly support the action. Finally, this single material issue must be so particular in its character as to point out distinctly the nature of the matter in controversy. Upon the declaration the parties may join general or special issue ; issues joined on later pleadings in the suit are called simply issues without other description. The general issue denies all the material allegations in the declaration, or rather it enables the defendant to demand proof of all of them. A special issue, properly speak- ing, is the denial of one of several substantive facts which are essential to the right of action. A traverse of one essential point is plainly as complete a denial of the plaintiff's right of re- covery, as the traverse of his whole declara- tion by a general issue could be. The legisla- tion both in England and the United States has for some time been in the direction of requiring the specific fact in controversy to be put plainly . in issue by the pleadings. Feigned issues are sometimes framed in chancery for the purpose of submitting disputed questions of fact to the ordinary modes of trial at law. Thus, if it be contested whether A is the heir of B, the fact will be sent to be tried in a law court upon a fictitious suit. For example, one party may declare that he wagered with another that B was the heir of A ; he then avers that he is so, and demands the wager. The defendant ad- mits the wager, but avers in reply that B is not the heir of A. Upon these allegations issue is joined, and the fact is decided in the usual modes. Feigned issues may also be em- ployed by suitors in courts of law for deter- mining a single point expeditiously. ISSCS, an ancient town of Cilicia, in Asia Minor, at the head of the gulf of Issus, cele- brated for the battle fought near it in 333 B. C., in which Alexander the Great defeated Darius. Its exact site is uncertain. The battle also between the army of Septimius Severus and Niger (A. D. 194) was fought near Issus. ISTAPA, or Istapam, a port on the Pacific coast of Guatemala, in Central America, in lat. 13 53' N., Ion. 90 43' W., at the mouth of the river Michatoyat. Alvarado here built the vessels in which he sailed against Pizarro and Almagro in Peru, in 1533. It remained the only port of Guatemala on that side of the continent till 1853, when it was abandoned for a point called San Jose, 12 m. N., which was supposed to have fewer disadvantages. Both Istapa and San Jose, however, are entirely open to the sea, and vessels are unable to approach nearer than 1J m. from the shore, where they are obliged to anchor on a bottom of shifting sands, prepared to stand out to sea at a moment's warning. ISTKK. See DANUBE. ISTHMIAN GAMES, one of the four great na- tional festivals of Greece, celebrated on the isthmus of Corinth in April or May of every alternate year, in the second and fourth years of each Olympiad. The story of their origin is as follows : Athamas, king of Orchomenus, had by his second wife Ino a son named Meli- certes, whom together with his mother he pur- sued in a fit of madness. In order to escape from him they jumped into the sea. Ino was changed into a sea goddess, and the body of Melicertes was washed ashore and buried by his uncle Sisyphus, who was directed by the nereids to pay him heroic honors under the name of Paleemon. Sisyphus accordingly es- tablished the Isthmian games in honor of Nep- tune and Palsemon. The games, however, fell into disuse, and were for a time entirely inter- rupted, till Theseus organized them anew in honor of Neptune. In the 6th century B. C. they became Pan-Hellenic festivals. Until the overthrow of Corinth by Mummius (146 B. C.), the games were conducted by the Corinthians, though the Athenians held the places of honor, the irpoedpia or front seats. The privilege was then given to the people of Sicyon. After the rebuilding of Corinth by Csesar, they were again managed by that city, but the people of Sicyon had the exclusive right to sit as judges. They continued regularly till Christianity be- gan to spread, when they fell into decay, but were still celebrated under Constantine and Julian. The Isthmian games, like the Olym- pic, consisted of all kinds of athletic sports, wrestling, boxing, gymnastics of every sort, racing on foot and in chariots, and also con-
