European Kingdoms

Brutii (Italics)

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What are generally known as West Indo-European tribes arrived at the eastern edge of Central Europe around 2500 BC. Their northern group later became the proto-Celts of the Urnfield culture while the southern group seemingly migrated westwards and southwards, reaching Iberia, Illyria, and northern Italy.

Already further divided into semi-isolated tribes, they became more civilised in their habits and available forms of technology due to contact with southern Greeks and Etruscans. In the period between the eleventh to eighth centuries BC some of those groups in Illyria crossed by sea into the Italian peninsula and settled along the south-eastern coast.

Those who had entered peninsular Italy via the north Italian piedmont gradually migrated southwards to occupy much of the rest of eastern and central Italy. These tribes all formed part of a general group which are known as Italics, seemingly part of the main population of West Indo-Europeans prior to the emergence of Celtic culture.

The Brutii (or Bruttii) group of Italics settled in Italy during the Italian Iron Age. The Oscan-Umbrian group of which the Brutii were part is largely accepted as being Indo-European (perhaps even proto-Celtic), part of the migration into the peninsula from the north. The Brutti group settled in a region which came to be known as Bruttium, in western Calabria, along the Tyrrhenian coast. Their neighbours included the Lucani and Oenotri to the north, the Chones to the east, and the Morgetes to the south.

Strabo and Pliny, along with other ancient writers, state that the Picentes and Samnites were originally tribes of the Sabellians. This was a collective of central Italian tribes during the Iron Age, one which comprised the Marrucini, Marsi, Sabini, and Vestini.

More specifically, the Picentes and Samnites may have been a division of the Sabini. Writers frequently link one to the other, sometimes referring to the Samnites as Sabellus, seemingly as an umbrella term for their origin. From the Samnites were descended the Lucani, and from the Lucani the Brutii.

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(Information by Peter Kessler, with additional information by Edward Dawson, from Researches into the Physical History of Mankind, Vol 3, Issue 1, James Cowles Prichard, from An Historical Geography of Europe, Norman J G Pounds (Abridged Version), from The Roman History: From Romulus and the Foundation of Rome to the Reign of the Emperor Tiberius, Velleius Paterculus, J C Yardley, & Anthony A Barrett, from A Genetic Signal of Central European Celtic Ancestry, David K Faux, from The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World, David W Anthony, from The History of Rome, Volume 1, Titus Livius (translated by Rev Canon Roberts), from The Histories, Herodotus (Penguin, 1996), from Encyclopaedia Britannica (Eleventh Edition, Cambridge (England), 1910), from Encyclopaedia of the Roman Empire, Matthew Bunson (1994), and from External Links: The Beaker phenomenon and the genomic transformation of northwest Europe (Nature), and Massive migration from the steppe was a source for Indo-European languages in Europe (Nature.com), and Indo-European Chronology - Countries and Peoples, and Indo-European Etymological Dictionary, J Pokorny, and Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, William Smith (1854, Perseus Digital Library), and The Natural History, Pliny the Elder (John Bostock, Ed), and Geography, Strabo (H C Hamilton & W Falconer, London, 1903, Perseus Online Edition), and L'Arbre Celtique (The Celtic Tree, in French), and Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz or Dictionnaire Historique de la Suisse or Dizionario Storico dell Svizzera (in German, French, and Italian respectively), and Le Alpi (Università di Trento), and Pleiades (Ancient World Mapping Center and Institute for the Study of the Ancient World).)

10th century BC

According to Thucydides, the arrival of the more warlike Oenotri and Opici in northern Calabria triggers the migration of the Elymi, Itali, and Siculi into the 'toe' of Italy and onto Sicily. Antiochus of Syracuse, writing around 420 BC, confirms this. The migration would seem to be the trigger for the Lucani to enter the modern regions of southern Campania and Basilicata.

This map shows not only the greatest extent of Etruscan influence in Italy, during the seventh to fifth centuries BC, but also Gaulish intrusion to the north, which compressed Etruscan borders there (click or tap on map to view on a separate page)

c.700 BC

Shortly after the start of the Golasecca I B period the Oenotri are pushed out of their settlement at Metabon on the Gulf of Taranto by Greek settlers who found the colony of Metapontum on the site.

The Oenotri are forced to move inland, and it is probably at this time that they infringe on the territory of the Lucani. The Chones, similarly pushed off the coast by the colony of Sybaris, would also appear to infringe on Lucani territory.

Strabo later writes that the land which is named after the Lucani (Lucania) contains none of their number. Instead it is entirely possessed by the Chones and Oenotri. The Lucani are pushed north-westwards, buffering against the Samnites.

A Greek coin from a colony on the coast of Brutii territory, with the head of Athena complete with Corinthian helmet on the left

fl c.360s BC?

First ruler (and queen) of the Brutii. Legendary?

356 BC

By this time the Brutii have probably become recognisable as a distinct entity (by about 360 BC, although the precise date of 356 BC is given by Diodorus). Opinions on their origin are mixed, with the later Roman writer Justin describing them in his Historiarum Philippicarum libri XLIV as the youths of the Lucani while others call them a conglomeration of slaves, Oenotri, and Etruscans.

In all probability both are true, with Lucani settlers heading a mixed bag of locals. The territory they occupy, to the south of the Lucani, is never referred to as the domain of the Brutii - the more modern term of 'Bruttium'.

Instead it is the people themselves who are always referenced, which seems to reinforce the idea that they are late to appear as a separate people. Their territory abuts that of the Lucani along the River Laus close to the Tyrrhenian Sea. From there it crosses to the River Crathis, close to the Gulf of Tarentum.

The territory in which the Lucani were settled in the fourth to first centuries BC - the Campania in south-western Italy - lay immediately to the south of Mount Vesuvius

340s - 330s BC

The mixed bag which forms the Brutii quickly gels and prospers. They are able to defend the more mountainous interior of their land and also strike out and expand. Over the course of the years following their initial appearance they attack and conquer the Greek colonies of Hipponium, Terina, and Thurii.

334 - 331 BC

At the request of the embattled Greek colony of Taras, Alexander I Molossus embarks for Italy with a force of Epirotes, Macedonians and Tarantines. He fights the Brutii and Lucani and, in 332 BC, defeats an alliance of Lucani and Samnites near Paestum.

In the same year he concludes a treaty with the Romans and continues battling against the other Italic peoples. This period proves to be the end for the Golasecca culture within the Italian Iron Age.

Objects which have been found in tombs in the Como region of Italy testify to the progressive opening up by the Golasecca people to exchanges with the transalpine world to the north and the central-Italic Etruscan area to the south

Alexander captures Heraclea from the Lucani and then Sipontum and Terina from the Brutii but, having been forced to accept battle at Pandosia (in Calabria), he is killed by a Lucani exile. The defeat is a significant one as it marks the end of any new Greek colonisation in Italy and teaches the Italians how to defeat the phalanx, which is completely outmanoeuvred on rocky ground by the fast-moving Italics.

282 - 278 BC

The growing power of Rome has saved the Greek colony of Thurii from being overwhelmed by the Italics, but the colony of Tarentum intervenes, sinking some of the Roman ships. Rome declares war on Tarentum, but Pyrrhus of Epirus declares for Tarentum, as do many of the southern Italic peoples, including the Brutii, Lucani, and Samnites.

A few years later these three Italic tribes send auxiliaries to the army of Pyrrhus but, following his withdrawal in 278 BC to conquer Syracuse, they alone face Rome's might.

A fifth century BC Greek theatre lies on the southern slopes of the Temenite Hill on Syracuse, still in surprisingly good condition despite centuries of spoliation

278 - 272 BC

In six years of further campaigning, Generals Gaius Fabricius Luscinus and Lucius Papirius inflict defeat after defeat on the Italic tribes until they are subdued (by 272 BC) and forced to concede half of the forest of Sila, which is a valuable source of timber, in exchange for peace.

218 - 202 BC

The Second Punic War is fought against Carthage. Rome is aided by its Etruscan, Picene, and Umbrian forces, but Italy is invaded by Hannibal Barca and a Roman army is massacred at the Battle of Cannae, killing sixty thousand.

The Brutii immediately declare for the Carthaginians against their northern oppressors and their territory forms a vital bulwark for Hannibal's defensive measures in southern Italy. Rome's resurgence at the successful conclusion of this war seals the fate of all the Calabrian tribes which include the Oenotri, Brutii, Chones, Morgetes, and Itali.

All of them fall permanently under Roman domination, but the Brutii are especially punished, suffering the loss of control of most of their territory and being used as servants and other menials, while being excluded from providing military service.

Numerius prepares his Samnites to face Rome at the Battle of Bovianum, close to the Pentri capital of the same name

Despite this, the Brutii are still carefully monitored for several years by Rome, with Roman colonies being established in the region to effect better control of them. This is the last that is heard of the Brutii. Their remaining numbers are absorbed into the region's new Roman population.