European Kingdoms

Dauni (Italics / Illyrians)

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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 Dauni (or Daunia to the Greeks) group of Italics settled during the Italian Iron Age into the northern part of the modern region of Apulia, on the Gargano promontory. They were neighboured by the Frentani to the north, the Carracini and Pentri clans of the Samnites to the west, the Iapyges to the south-west, and the Peucetii to the south.

Unlike the other Italic tribes around them, the Dauni, and also their Peucetii neighbours to the south, were probably of Illyrian origin. Both were sub-branches of the Iapyges, who were thought to have migrated into the Italian peninsula from the Illyrian coastline. They probably crossed the Adriatic Sea at its narrowest point, from modern Albania, to arrive in south-eastern Italy.

This migration appears to have taken place between the eleventh and tenth centuries BC, with the Dauni settling the northern section of Apulia, between the rivers Frento and Aufidus. This included Monte Gargano and Monti Dauni, to which they gave their name.

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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).)

fl c.1230s? BC

Eponymous legendary Arcadian founder of the tribe.

According to Greek legend, Iapyx, Daunius, and Peucetius are three sons of an Illyrian (Arcadian) king named Lycaon, who is himself the son of Pelasgos, ancestor of the Pelasgoi.

They lead their people across the Adriatic Sea and into south-eastern Italy, where they settle, mixing in with the native pre-Italic population. The tribe fragments into at least four segments: the Iapyges, Dauni, Messapii, and Peucetii. Subsequently, towns in the southern parts of the region are founded by the Greek colonists of Magna Graecia.

Modern computer graphics show a reconstructed probable Pelasgian settlement of Pavlopetri, based on surviving ruins and remnants of the street plan, all of which still exist about three metres under the sea

7th - 6th C BC

The Dauni differ from their Illyrian cousins to the south in that they are farther away from the influence of the Greeks in southern Italy. They also have fewer connections with the Greeks and instead develop a more distinct culture of their own.

They create a series of funerary monuments, stelae, in this period, which are later located by archaeologists in the plain to the south of Siponto. They also create very distinctive, hand-formed pottery, which begins by using geometric patterns.

Italo-Illyrian cultural centres develop at Aecae (near Troia), Arpi (near Foggia), Ausculum (modern Ascoli Satriano), Canusium (modern Canosa di Puglia, one of two principle centres for pottery), Casone, Castelluccio dei Sauri, Coppa Navigata, Cupola, and Herdonia (modern Ordona, the second of two principle centres for pottery).

Early Dauni pottery developed a style which was mostly its own, generally using geometric shapes, although the example shown here is a plain one, albeit still simplistically attractive

Further centres are at Lavello, Lucera, Melfi, Merinum (modern Vieste), Monte Saraceno (near Mattinata), Ripalta (near Cerignola), Salapia (near Cerignola and Manfredonia), Siponto, Teanum Apulum (in the San Paolo di Civitate of the present day), Uria, Venosa, and Vibinum (modern Bovino).

5th century BC

Daunian pottery begins to be influenced by the Greeks. Crude human, bird, and plant figures begin to replace the earlier geometric patterns.

325 - 304 BC

Rome fights the Second Samnite War against the Samnites in 325 BC. During this period the Marsi ally themselves to the Romans, while the Dauni, Iapyges, Lucani, Messapii, and Peucetii side with the Samnites.

When the Samnites are defeated, so are their allies, and all of them are subjugated by Rome. 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

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 (in Peucetii territory), killing sixty thousand.

The final stages of the war in Italy are fought out at Monte Gargano, in the northernmost part of the modern region of Apulia and the heart of Dauni territory. When the Carthaginians withdraw, Rome is able to capture the ports of Brundisium (Brindisi, on the eastern coast) and Tarentum (Taranto), both of which border Messapii territory, and establish full dominion over the south-east of Italy.

91 - 89 BC

The Marsi fight the Social War against Rome in which Rome's allies strive for, and are eventually granted, citizenship. The Frentani, Latins and Umbri are also granted citizenship, although they play a smaller role in the war, with the Umbri joining the rebels late and agreeing terms with Rome early on.

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)

During the imperial age the regions of Apulia and Calabria become production houses of grain and oil, and form the main export route for the eastern provinces. Thereafter, the Dauni are gradually absorbed within Roman Italy and lose their individual identity.