Bruttii
Encyclopedia
The Bruttii were an ancient Italic people who inhabited the southern extremity of Italy
, from the frontiers of Lucania
to the Sicilian Straits and the promontory of Leucopetra, roughly corresponding to modern Calabria
.
.
Both Greek and Latin
writers expressly tell us that Bruttii was the name of the people: no separate designation for the country or province appears to have been adopted by the Romans
, who almost universally use the plural form, or name of the nation, to designate the region which they inhabited. Thus Livy
uses Consentia in Bruttiis, extremus Italiae angulus Bruttii, Bruttii provincia, etc.: and the same usage prevailed down to a very late period. The name of Bruttium
to designate the province or region, though adopted by almost all modern writers on ancient geography appears to be unsupported by any classical authority: Pomponius Mela
, indeed, uses in one passage the phrase in Bruttio, but it is probable that this is merely an elliptic expression for in Bruttio agro, the term used by him in another passage, as well as by many other writers. The Greeks, however, used for the name of the country, reserving for that of the people. Polybius
, in more than one passage, calls it .
The land of the Bruttians, or Bruttium, was bounded on the north by Lucania
, from which it was separated by a line drawn from the river Laus
near the Tyrrhenian Sea
to the Crathis
near the Gulf of Tarentum. On the west it was washed by the Tyrrhenian Sea, and on the south and east by that known in ancient times as the Sicilian Sea, including under that appellation the Gulf of Tarentum.
All ancient authors agree in stating that neither the name nor the origin of the Bruttians could claim a very remote antiquity. The country occupied by them was inhabited, in the earliest times described by ancient historians, by the Oenotrians
– a tribe of Pelasgian origin, of which the Conii and Morgetes appear to have been merely subordinate divisions. It was while the Oenotrians were still masters of the land that the first Greek settlers arrived; and the beauty of the climate and country, as well as the rapid prosperity attained by these first settlements, proved so attractive that within a few years the shores of Bruttium were completely encircled by a belt of Greek colonies, part of Magna Graecia
. There are few other informations about the exact relations between these Greek cities and the native Oenotrian tribes, though most likely the latter were reduced to a state of dependence, and at one time at least of complete subjection. The territories of the Greek cities comprised the whole line of coast, so that those of Crotona and Thurii
met at the river Hylias, and those of Locri
and Rhegium were separated only by the Halex; since both Crotona and Locri founded colonies on the opposite side of the peninsula, most likely the intermediate districts also were at least nominally subject to them.
Such appears to have been the state of things at the time of the Peloponnesian War
; but in the course of the following century a great change took place. The Sabellian tribe of the Lucanians, who had been gradually extending their conquests towards the south, and had already made themselves masters of the northern parts of Oenotria, now pressed forwards into the Bruttian peninsula, and established their dominion over the interior of that country, reducing its previous inhabitants to a state of vassalage or serfdom. This probably took place after their great victory over the Thurians, near Laus, in 390 BCE; and little more than 30 years elapsed between this event and the rise of the people, properly called Bruttians. These are represented by ancient authors as merely a congregation of revolted slaves and other fugitives, who had taken refuge in the wild mountain regions of the peninsula: it seems probable that a considerable portion of them were the native Oenotrian or Pelasgic inhabitants, who gladly embraced the opportunity to throw off the foreign yoke. But Justin
distinctly describes them as headed by youths of Lucanian race; and there appears sufficient evidence of their close connection with the Lucanians to warrant the assumption that these formed an important ingredient in their national composition.
The name of Bruttii was given them, it seems, not by the Greeks, but by the Lucanians, and signified in their language rebels . But though used at first as a term of reproach, it was subsequently adopted by the Bruttians themselves, who, when they had risen to the rank of a powerful nation, pretended to derive it from a hero named Bruttus , the son of Hercules
and Valentia. Justin, on the other hand, represents them as deriving their name from a woman of the name of Bruttia, who figured in their first revolt, and who, in later versions of the legend, assumes the dignity of a queen.
The rise of the Bruttian people from this fortuitous aggregation of rebels and fugitives is assigned by Diodorus to the year 356 BCE; and this accords with the statement of Strabo that they arose at the period of the expedition of Dion
against the younger Dionysius. The wars of the latter, as well as of his father, with the Greek cities in southern Italy, and the state of confusion and weakness to which these were reduced in consequence, probably contributed in a great degree to pave the way for the rise of the Bruttian power. The name must indeed have been much more ancient, since Diodorus, in another passage, speaks of the Bruttians as having expelled the remainder of the Sybarites
, who had settled on the river Traeis after the destruction of their own city. But it is probable that this is a mere inaccuracy of expression, and that he only means to designate the inhabitants of the country, who were afterwards called Bruttians. Stephanus of Byzantium
, indeed, cites Antiochus of Syracuse
, as using the name of Brettia for this part of Italy, but this seems to be clearly a mistake. It is more remarkable that, according to the same authority, the name of Brettian as an adjective was used by Aristophanes
, at least 30 years before the date assigned for the rise of the nation. The progress of the latter, after their first appearance in history, was rapid. Composed originally of mere troops of outlaws and bandits, they soon became numerous and powerful enough to defy the arms of the Lucanians, and not only maintained their independence in the mountain districts of the interior, but attacked and made themselves masters of the Greek cities of Hipponium, Terina
, and Thurii. Their independence seems to have been readily acknowledged by the Lucanians; and less than 30 years after their first revolt, the two nations united their arms as allies against their Greek neighbors. The latter applied for assistance to Alexander, king of Epirus
, who crossed over into Italy with an army, and carried on the war for several successive campaigns, during which he reduced Heraclea, Consentia (modern Cosenza
), and Terina; but finally perished in a battle against the combined forces of the Lucanians and Bruttians, near Pandosia
, 326 BCE.
They next had to contend against the arms of Agathocles
, who ravaged their coasts with his fleets, took the city of Hipponium, which he converted into a strong fortress and naval station, and compelled the Bruttians to conclude a disadvantageous peace. But they soon broke this treaty; and recovered possession of Hipponium. This appears to have been the period when the Bruttian nation had reached its highest pitch of power and prosperity; it was not long before they had to contend with a more formidable adversary, and as early as 282 BCE they joined and the Lucanians and Samnites against the growing power of Rome
. A few years later they are mentioned as sending auxiliaries to the army of Pyrrhus
; but after the defeat of that monarch, and his expulsion from Italy, they had to bear the full brunt of the war, and after repeated campaigns and successive triumphs of the Roman generals, Gaius Fabricius Luscinus
and Lucius Papirius, they were finally reduced to submission, and compelled to purchase peace by the surrender of one-half of the great forest of Sila, so valuable for its pitch and timber.
Their submission however was still but imperfect; and though they regained tranquil throughout the First Punic War
, the successes of Hannibal in the Second
, proved too much for their fidelity, and the Bruttians were among the first to declare in favor of the Carthaginian
general after the Battle of Cannae
. The defection of the people did not indeed in the first instance draw with it that of the towns: but Petelia and Consentia, which had at first held aloof, were speedily reduced by the Bruttians, assisted by a small Carthaginian force, and the more important cities of Locri and Crotona followed not long after. Rhegium alone remained firm, and was able to defy the Carthaginian arms throughout the war. In 215 BCE, Hanno
, the lieutenant of Hannibal, after his defeat at Grumentum
by Tiberius Gracchus
, threw himself into Bruttium, where he was soon after joined by a body of fresh troops from Carthage under Bomilcar
: and from this time he made that region his stronghold, from whence he repeatedly issued to oppose the Roman generals in Lucania and Samnium, while he constantly fell back upon it as a place of safety when defeated or hard pressed by the enemy. The physical character of the country rendered it necessarily a military position of the greatest strength: and after the defeat and death of Hasdrubal
Hannibal himself put forces into some Bruttian territory, where he continued to maintain his ground against the Roman generals. There are very little information concerning the operations of the four years during which Hannibal retained his positions in this province: he appears to have made his headquarters for the most part in the neighbourhood of Crotona, but the name of Castra Hannibalis retained by a small town on the Gulf of Squillace
, points to his having occupied this also as a permanent station. Meanwhile the Romans, though avoiding any decisive engagement, were continually gaining ground on him by the successive reduction of towns and fortresses, so that very few of these remained in the hands of the Carthaginian general when he was finally recalled from Italy.
The ravages of so many successive campaigns must have already inflicted a severe blow upon the prosperity of Bruttium: the measures adopted by the Romans to punish them for their rebellion completed their humiliation. They were deprived of a great part of their territory, and the whole nation reduced to a state bordering on servitude: they were not admitted like the other nations of Italy to rank as allies, but were pronounced incapable of military service, and only employed to attend upon the Roman magistrates as couriers or letter-carriers, and attendants for other purposes of a menial character. It was however some time before they were altogether crushed: for several years after the close of the Second Punic War, one of the praetors was annually sent with an army to watch over the Bruttians: and it was evidently with the view of more fully securing their subjection that three colonies were established in their territory, two of Roman citizens at Tempsa and Crotona, and a third with Latin rights at Hipponium, to which the name of Vibo Valentia
was now given. A fourth was at the same time settled at Thurii on their immediate frontier.
From this time the Bruttians as a people disappear from history: but their country again became the theatre of war during the revolt of Spartacus
, who after his first defeats by Crassus, took refuge in the southernmost portion of Bruttium (called by Plutarch
the Rhegian peninsula), in which the Roman general sought to confine him by drawing lines of intrenchment across the isthmus from sea to sea. The insurgent leader however forced his way through, and again carried the war into the heart of Lucania. During the Civil Wars the coasts of Bruttium were repeatedly laid waste by the fleets of Sextus Pompeius
, and witnessed several conflicts between the latter and those of Octavian, who had established the headquarters both of his army and navy at Vibo. Strabo
speaks of the whole province as reduced in his time to a state of complete decay. It was included by Augustus
in the Third Region (Regio III), together with Lucania; and the two provinces appear to have continued united for most administrative purposes until the fall of the Roman Empire
, and were governed conjointly by a magistrate termed a Corrector
. The Liber Coloniarum however treats of the Provincia Bruttiorum as distinct from that of Lucania.
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, from the frontiers of Lucania
Lucania
Lucania was an ancient district of southern Italy, extending from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Gulf of Taranto. To the north it adjoined Campania, Samnium and Apulia, and to the south it was separated by a narrow isthmus from the district of Bruttium...
to the Sicilian Straits and the promontory of Leucopetra, roughly corresponding to modern Calabria
Calabria
Calabria , in antiquity known as Bruttium, is a region in southern Italy, south of Naples, located at the "toe" of the Italian Peninsula. The capital city of Calabria is Catanzaro....
.
History
The Bruttii spoke Oscan, as attested by several finds of Oscan script, though this may have been a later influence from their Sabellic neighbors, the LucaniLucani
Lučani is a town and municipality located in the Dragačevo region within the Moravica District of Serbia . The population of the town is 3,425, while population of the municipality was 20,855....
.
Both Greek and Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
writers expressly tell us that Bruttii was the name of the people: no separate designation for the country or province appears to have been adopted by the Romans
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
, who almost universally use the plural form, or name of the nation, to designate the region which they inhabited. Thus Livy
Livy
Titus Livius — known as Livy in English — was a Roman historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people. Ab Urbe Condita Libri, "Chapters from the Foundation of the City," covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome well before the traditional foundation in 753 BC...
uses Consentia in Bruttiis, extremus Italiae angulus Bruttii, Bruttii provincia, etc.: and the same usage prevailed down to a very late period. The name of Bruttium
Calabria
Calabria , in antiquity known as Bruttium, is a region in southern Italy, south of Naples, located at the "toe" of the Italian Peninsula. The capital city of Calabria is Catanzaro....
to designate the province or region, though adopted by almost all modern writers on ancient geography appears to be unsupported by any classical authority: Pomponius Mela
Pomponius Mela
Pomponius Mela, who wrote around AD 43, was the earliest Roman geographer. He was born in Tingentera and died c. AD 45.His short work occupies less than one hundred pages of ordinary print. It is laconic in style and deficient in method, but of pure Latinity, and occasionally relieved by pleasing...
, indeed, uses in one passage the phrase in Bruttio, but it is probable that this is merely an elliptic expression for in Bruttio agro, the term used by him in another passage, as well as by many other writers. The Greeks, however, used for the name of the country, reserving for that of the people. Polybius
Polybius
Polybius , Greek ) was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic Period noted for his work, The Histories, which covered the period of 220–146 BC in detail. The work describes in part the rise of the Roman Republic and its gradual domination over Greece...
, in more than one passage, calls it .
The land of the Bruttians, or Bruttium, was bounded on the north by Lucania
Lucania
Lucania was an ancient district of southern Italy, extending from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Gulf of Taranto. To the north it adjoined Campania, Samnium and Apulia, and to the south it was separated by a narrow isthmus from the district of Bruttium...
, from which it was separated by a line drawn from the river Laus
Lao River
The Lao is a river of southern Italy. It is a considerable stream, rising in the Lucanian Apennines in the province of Potenza, Basilicata region and falling into the Gulf of Policastro near Santa Maria del Cedro, province of Cosenza, Calabria region...
near the Tyrrhenian Sea
Tyrrhenian Sea
The Tyrrhenian Sea is part of the Mediterranean Sea off the western coast of Italy.-Geography:The sea is bounded by Corsica and Sardinia , Tuscany, Lazio, Campania, Basilicata and Calabria and Sicily ....
to the Crathis
Crathis
The Crathis or Crater is a river in Calabria, southern Italy. It rises in the central the Sila Mountains, a few kilometers south of Cosenza, flows below the walls of that city, where it is joined by the smaller stream of the Busento, and has a course nearly due north through the center of the...
near the Gulf of Tarentum. On the west it was washed by the Tyrrhenian Sea, and on the south and east by that known in ancient times as the Sicilian Sea, including under that appellation the Gulf of Tarentum.
All ancient authors agree in stating that neither the name nor the origin of the Bruttians could claim a very remote antiquity. The country occupied by them was inhabited, in the earliest times described by ancient historians, by the Oenotrians
Oenotrians
The Oenotrians were an ancient Italic people of unknown origin who inhabited a territory from Paestum to southern Calabria in southern Italy...
– a tribe of Pelasgian origin, of which the Conii and Morgetes appear to have been merely subordinate divisions. It was while the Oenotrians were still masters of the land that the first Greek settlers arrived; and the beauty of the climate and country, as well as the rapid prosperity attained by these first settlements, proved so attractive that within a few years the shores of Bruttium were completely encircled by a belt of Greek colonies, part of Magna Graecia
Magna Graecia
Magna Græcia is the name of the coastal areas of Southern Italy on the Tarentine Gulf that were extensively colonized by Greek settlers; particularly the Achaean colonies of Tarentum, Crotone, and Sybaris, but also, more loosely, the cities of Cumae and Neapolis to the north...
. There are few other informations about the exact relations between these Greek cities and the native Oenotrian tribes, though most likely the latter were reduced to a state of dependence, and at one time at least of complete subjection. The territories of the Greek cities comprised the whole line of coast, so that those of Crotona and Thurii
Thurii
Thurii , called also by some Latin writers Thurium , for a time also Copia and Copiae, was a city of Magna Graecia, situated on the Tarentine gulf, within a short distance of the site of Sybaris, whose place it may be considered as having taken...
met at the river Hylias, and those of Locri
Locri
Locri is a town and comune in the province of Reggio Calabria, Calabria, southern Italy. The name derives from the ancient Greek town Locris.-History:...
and Rhegium were separated only by the Halex; since both Crotona and Locri founded colonies on the opposite side of the peninsula, most likely the intermediate districts also were at least nominally subject to them.
Such appears to have been the state of things at the time of the Peloponnesian War
Peloponnesian War
The Peloponnesian War, 431 to 404 BC, was an ancient Greek war fought by Athens and its empire against the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta. Historians have traditionally divided the war into three phases...
; but in the course of the following century a great change took place. The Sabellian tribe of the Lucanians, who had been gradually extending their conquests towards the south, and had already made themselves masters of the northern parts of Oenotria, now pressed forwards into the Bruttian peninsula, and established their dominion over the interior of that country, reducing its previous inhabitants to a state of vassalage or serfdom. This probably took place after their great victory over the Thurians, near Laus, in 390 BCE; and little more than 30 years elapsed between this event and the rise of the people, properly called Bruttians. These are represented by ancient authors as merely a congregation of revolted slaves and other fugitives, who had taken refuge in the wild mountain regions of the peninsula: it seems probable that a considerable portion of them were the native Oenotrian or Pelasgic inhabitants, who gladly embraced the opportunity to throw off the foreign yoke. But Justin
Junianus Justinus
Justin was a Latin historian who lived under the Roman Empire. His name is mentioned only in the title of his own history, and there it is in the genitive, which would be M. Juniani Justini no matter which nomen he bore.Of his personal history nothing is known...
distinctly describes them as headed by youths of Lucanian race; and there appears sufficient evidence of their close connection with the Lucanians to warrant the assumption that these formed an important ingredient in their national composition.
The name of Bruttii was given them, it seems, not by the Greeks, but by the Lucanians, and signified in their language rebels . But though used at first as a term of reproach, it was subsequently adopted by the Bruttians themselves, who, when they had risen to the rank of a powerful nation, pretended to derive it from a hero named Bruttus , the son of Hercules
Hercules
Hercules is the Roman name for Greek demigod Heracles, son of Zeus , and the mortal Alcmene...
and Valentia. Justin, on the other hand, represents them as deriving their name from a woman of the name of Bruttia, who figured in their first revolt, and who, in later versions of the legend, assumes the dignity of a queen.
The rise of the Bruttian people from this fortuitous aggregation of rebels and fugitives is assigned by Diodorus to the year 356 BCE; and this accords with the statement of Strabo that they arose at the period of the expedition of Dion
Dion of Syracuse
Dion , tyrant of Syracuse in Sicily, was the son of Hipparinus, and brother-in-law of Dionysius I of Syracuse.-Family:Dion was the son of the Syracusan statesman Hipparinus, who had assisted the despot Dionysius I, in the Syracusan army. Hipparinus' other children were Megacles and Aristomache...
against the younger Dionysius. The wars of the latter, as well as of his father, with the Greek cities in southern Italy, and the state of confusion and weakness to which these were reduced in consequence, probably contributed in a great degree to pave the way for the rise of the Bruttian power. The name must indeed have been much more ancient, since Diodorus, in another passage, speaks of the Bruttians as having expelled the remainder of the Sybarites
Sybaris
Sybaris was an ancient city in Magna Graecia on the western shore of the Gulf of Taranto. The wealth of the city during the 6th century BC was so great that the Sybarites became synonymous with pleasure and luxury...
, who had settled on the river Traeis after the destruction of their own city. But it is probable that this is a mere inaccuracy of expression, and that he only means to designate the inhabitants of the country, who were afterwards called Bruttians. Stephanus of Byzantium
Stephanus of Byzantium
Stephen of Byzantium, also known as Stephanus Byzantinus , was the author of an important geographical dictionary entitled Ethnica...
, indeed, cites Antiochus of Syracuse
Antiochus of Syracuse
Antiochus of Syracuse was a Greek historian, who flourished around 420 BC. Little is known of his life, but his works, of which only fragments remain, enjoyed a high reputation because of their accuracy...
, as using the name of Brettia for this part of Italy, but this seems to be clearly a mistake. It is more remarkable that, according to the same authority, the name of Brettian as an adjective was used by Aristophanes
Aristophanes
Aristophanes , son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete...
, at least 30 years before the date assigned for the rise of the nation. The progress of the latter, after their first appearance in history, was rapid. Composed originally of mere troops of outlaws and bandits, they soon became numerous and powerful enough to defy the arms of the Lucanians, and not only maintained their independence in the mountain districts of the interior, but attacked and made themselves masters of the Greek cities of Hipponium, Terina
Terina
Terina is a brand name used by the Norwegian meat processing company Nortura on its frozen and canned food. The production uses raw products from Gilde but is processed through the subsidiary Terina AS. There are processing plants in Namsos, Tynset, Sogndal and Lillehammer...
, and Thurii. Their independence seems to have been readily acknowledged by the Lucanians; and less than 30 years after their first revolt, the two nations united their arms as allies against their Greek neighbors. The latter applied for assistance to Alexander, king of Epirus
Epirus
The name Epirus, from the Greek "Ήπειρος" meaning continent may refer to:-Geographical:* Epirus - a historical and geographical region of the southwestern Balkans, straddling modern Greece and Albania...
, who crossed over into Italy with an army, and carried on the war for several successive campaigns, during which he reduced Heraclea, Consentia (modern Cosenza
Cosenza
Cosenza is a city in southern Italy, located at the confluence of two historic rivers: the Busento and the Crathis. The municipal population is of around 70,000; the urban area, however, counts over 260,000 inhabitants...
), and Terina; but finally perished in a battle against the combined forces of the Lucanians and Bruttians, near Pandosia
Pandosia (Bruttium)
Pandosia was an ancient city of Bruttium , Italy, situated near the frontiers of Lucania . Strabo describes it as a little above Consentia , the precise sense of which expression is far from clear ; but Livy calls it imminentem Lucanis ac Bruttiis finibus. Pandosia (Greek: ) was an ancient city of...
, 326 BCE.
They next had to contend against the arms of Agathocles
Agathocles
Agathocles , , was tyrant of Syracuse and king of Sicily .-Biography:...
, who ravaged their coasts with his fleets, took the city of Hipponium, which he converted into a strong fortress and naval station, and compelled the Bruttians to conclude a disadvantageous peace. But they soon broke this treaty; and recovered possession of Hipponium. This appears to have been the period when the Bruttian nation had reached its highest pitch of power and prosperity; it was not long before they had to contend with a more formidable adversary, and as early as 282 BCE they joined and the Lucanians and Samnites against the growing power of Rome
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
. A few years later they are mentioned as sending auxiliaries to the army of Pyrrhus
Pyrrhus of Epirus
Pyrrhus or Pyrrhos was a Greek general and statesman of the Hellenistic era. He was king of the Greek tribe of Molossians, of the royal Aeacid house , and later he became king of Epirus and Macedon . He was one of the strongest opponents of early Rome...
; but after the defeat of that monarch, and his expulsion from Italy, they had to bear the full brunt of the war, and after repeated campaigns and successive triumphs of the Roman generals, Gaius Fabricius Luscinus
Gaius Fabricius Luscinus
Gaius Fabricius Luscinus Monocularis , son of Gaius, was said to have been the first of the Fabricii to move to ancient Rome, his family originating from Aletrium....
and Lucius Papirius, they were finally reduced to submission, and compelled to purchase peace by the surrender of one-half of the great forest of Sila, so valuable for its pitch and timber.
Their submission however was still but imperfect; and though they regained tranquil throughout the First Punic War
First Punic War
The First Punic War was the first of three wars fought between Ancient Carthage and the Roman Republic. For 23 years, the two powers struggled for supremacy in the western Mediterranean Sea, primarily on the Mediterranean island of Sicily and its surrounding waters but also to a lesser extent in...
, the successes of Hannibal in the Second
Second Punic War
The Second Punic War, also referred to as The Hannibalic War and The War Against Hannibal, lasted from 218 to 201 BC and involved combatants in the western and eastern Mediterranean. This was the second major war between Carthage and the Roman Republic, with the participation of the Berbers on...
, proved too much for their fidelity, and the Bruttians were among the first to declare in favor of the Carthaginian
Carthage
Carthage , implying it was a 'new Tyre') is a major urban centre that has existed for nearly 3,000 years on the Gulf of Tunis, developing from a Phoenician colony of the 1st millennium BC...
general after the Battle of Cannae
Battle of Cannae
The Battle of Cannae was a major battle of the Second Punic War, which took place on August 2, 216 BC near the town of Cannae in Apulia in southeast Italy. The army of Carthage under Hannibal decisively defeated a numerically superior army of the Roman Republic under command of the consuls Lucius...
. The defection of the people did not indeed in the first instance draw with it that of the towns: but Petelia and Consentia, which had at first held aloof, were speedily reduced by the Bruttians, assisted by a small Carthaginian force, and the more important cities of Locri and Crotona followed not long after. Rhegium alone remained firm, and was able to defy the Carthaginian arms throughout the war. In 215 BCE, Hanno
Hanno the Elder
Hanno the Elder was a Carthaginian general who served under Hannibal during the Second Punic War. According to the historian Livy, his track record was terrible: in 215 BC he was defeated by Tiberius Sempronius Longus at Grumentum, in 214 BC he was defeated by Gracchus at Beneventum, two years...
, the lieutenant of Hannibal, after his defeat at Grumentum
Grumentum
Grumentum was an ancient town in the centre of Lucania, in what is now the comune of Grumento Nova, c. 50 km south of Potenza by the direct road through Anxia, and 80 km by the Via Herculia, at the point of divergence of a road eastward to Heraclea.-History:The first settlements, of the...
by Tiberius Gracchus
Tiberius Gracchus
Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus was a Roman Populares politician of the 2nd century BC and brother of Gaius Gracchus. As a plebeian tribune, his reforms of agrarian legislation caused political turmoil in the Republic. These reforms threatened the holdings of rich landowners in Italy...
, threw himself into Bruttium, where he was soon after joined by a body of fresh troops from Carthage under Bomilcar
Bomilcar (3rd century BC)
Bomilcar was a Carthaginian commander in the Second Punic War.He was the commander of the Carthaginian supplies which were voted to Hannibal after the battle of Cannae , and with which he arrived in Italy in the ensuing year...
: and from this time he made that region his stronghold, from whence he repeatedly issued to oppose the Roman generals in Lucania and Samnium, while he constantly fell back upon it as a place of safety when defeated or hard pressed by the enemy. The physical character of the country rendered it necessarily a military position of the greatest strength: and after the defeat and death of Hasdrubal
Hasdrubal
Hasdrubal was the name of several Carthaginian generals of the First and Second Punic Wars...
Hannibal himself put forces into some Bruttian territory, where he continued to maintain his ground against the Roman generals. There are very little information concerning the operations of the four years during which Hannibal retained his positions in this province: he appears to have made his headquarters for the most part in the neighbourhood of Crotona, but the name of Castra Hannibalis retained by a small town on the Gulf of Squillace
Gulf of Squillace
The Gulf of Squillace is a body of water, an inlet of the Ionian Sea along the Calabrian coast of Italy.The gulf, renowned for its natural beauty, is part of the Ionian Sea and makes up part of the east coast of the region of Calabria...
, points to his having occupied this also as a permanent station. Meanwhile the Romans, though avoiding any decisive engagement, were continually gaining ground on him by the successive reduction of towns and fortresses, so that very few of these remained in the hands of the Carthaginian general when he was finally recalled from Italy.
The ravages of so many successive campaigns must have already inflicted a severe blow upon the prosperity of Bruttium: the measures adopted by the Romans to punish them for their rebellion completed their humiliation. They were deprived of a great part of their territory, and the whole nation reduced to a state bordering on servitude: they were not admitted like the other nations of Italy to rank as allies, but were pronounced incapable of military service, and only employed to attend upon the Roman magistrates as couriers or letter-carriers, and attendants for other purposes of a menial character. It was however some time before they were altogether crushed: for several years after the close of the Second Punic War, one of the praetors was annually sent with an army to watch over the Bruttians: and it was evidently with the view of more fully securing their subjection that three colonies were established in their territory, two of Roman citizens at Tempsa and Crotona, and a third with Latin rights at Hipponium, to which the name of Vibo Valentia
Vibo Valentia
Vibo Valentia is a city and comune in the Calabria region of southern Italy, near the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital of the province of Vibo Valentia, and is an agricultural, commercial and tourist center . There are also several large manufacturing industries, including the tuna district of...
was now given. A fourth was at the same time settled at Thurii on their immediate frontier.
From this time the Bruttians as a people disappear from history: but their country again became the theatre of war during the revolt of Spartacus
Spartacus
Spartacus was a famous leader of the slaves in the Third Servile War, a major slave uprising against the Roman Republic. Little is known about Spartacus beyond the events of the war, and surviving historical accounts are sometimes contradictory and may not always be reliable...
, who after his first defeats by Crassus, took refuge in the southernmost portion of Bruttium (called by Plutarch
Plutarch
Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...
the Rhegian peninsula), in which the Roman general sought to confine him by drawing lines of intrenchment across the isthmus from sea to sea. The insurgent leader however forced his way through, and again carried the war into the heart of Lucania. During the Civil Wars the coasts of Bruttium were repeatedly laid waste by the fleets of Sextus Pompeius
Sextus Pompeius
Sextus Pompeius Magnus Pius, in English Sextus Pompey , was a Roman general from the late Republic . He was the last focus of opposition to the Second Triumvirate...
, and witnessed several conflicts between the latter and those of Octavian, who had established the headquarters both of his army and navy at Vibo. Strabo
Strabo
Strabo, also written Strabon was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus , a city which he said was situated the approximate equivalent of 75 km from the Black Sea...
speaks of the whole province as reduced in his time to a state of complete decay. It was included by Augustus
Augustus
Augustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...
in the Third Region (Regio III), together with Lucania; and the two provinces appear to have continued united for most administrative purposes until the fall of the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
, and were governed conjointly by a magistrate termed a Corrector
Corrector
A corrector is a person who or object that practices correction, usually by removing or rectifying errors.The word is originally a Roman title corrector, derived from the Latin verb corrigēre, meaning "an action to rectify, to make right a wrong."Apart from the general sense of anyone who corrects...
. The Liber Coloniarum however treats of the Provincia Bruttiorum as distinct from that of Lucania.