The so-called West
Indo-European
tribes arrived at the eastern edge of central
Europe around
2500 BC. Their northern group became the
proto-Celts of the
Urnfield culture while the southern group seemingly migrated
westwards and southwards, reaching Illyria and northern
Italy.
Already divided further into semi-isolated tribes, they became more
civilised in habits and technologies due to contact with southern
Greeks and
Etruscans.
In 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 in 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 called
Italics.
The Lucani were a group of Italics who, during the Iron Age, were
located in the modern region of Campania, on the western side of
southern central Italy. They were neighboured by the
Etruscans and by the
Hirpini clan of the
Samnites to the north,
by the Iapyges to the
east, the Oenotri and
Chones to the south-east,
and the Brutii to the
south. The Oscan-Umbrian group of which the Lucani were part are
largely accepted as being Indo-Europeans (perhaps proto-Celts) who
migrated into the peninsula from the north in the eleventh to eighth
centuries BC. Strabo and Pliny, along with other ancient writers,
claim the Sabini as a
division of the Opici.
They also state that the
Picentes and Samnites
were originally tribes of the Sabellians. This was a collective of
central Italian tribes during the Iron Age, comprising 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.
They originally settled in the modern region of Basilicata, on the 'arch'
of Italy's 'boot', at the northern end of the Gulf of Taranto. Displaced
by the Oenotri and Chones around the start of the seventh century BC,
they migrated north-westwards, into Campania. According to Strabo, they
operated a democratic form of governance, with a dictator being elected
during times of trouble, similar to the system used in republican
Rome. Pliny the Elder
divides them into individual tribes named as the Atinati, Bantini, Eburini,
Grumentini, Numestrani, Potentini, Sontini, Sirini, Tergilani, Ursentini,
and Volcentani.
Their language came from the Oscan-Umbrian group of Indo-European languages
(P-Italic), which were widely spoken in Iron Age central and southern Italy
before the rise to dominance of Latin (Latin itself was a slightly more
distantly related language, coming from the Indo-European Latino-Faliscan
group, or Q-Italic). The characters they used on their coins in the fourth
and third centuries BC were Greek, showing the influence they had received
from the coastal colonies of Magna Graecia.
The origins of the Lucani name are obscure, but two theories are popular.
Either the name is related to the Latin word, 'lucus', which means 'sacred
wood', or it derives from the Greek word for wolf which was in use by the
Sabellians (probably via the Greek colonies in southern Italy). Totemic
names such as this are known to have been used by other tribes across Europe
at various time, with the Picentes being another probable Italic candidate.
A misinterpretation of a simple line of text in Pliny the Elder can lead
some to assume that the Lucani are named after a leader named Lucius.
(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 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 Pliny's Natural
History in Thirty-Seven Books, Volumes 1-3, Pliny (the Elder), from
An Historical Geography of Europe, Norman J G Pounds (Abridged Version),
and from External Link: Geography, Strabo (H C Hamilton &
W Falconer, London, 1903,
Perseus Online Edition).)
Lamiscus
Legendary founder of the Lucani (but see c.550 BC).
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. Separating themselves from the main body of
Samnites, of which they
are a part, they form a new group in southern Italy.
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
c.700 BC
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, as Strabo later writes that the land named
after the Lucani (Lucania, much of modern Basilicata) contained none of their
number. Instead it is entirely possessed by the Chones and Oenotri. The Lucani
are pushed north-westwards, buffering against the
Samnites.
c.600 - 550 BC
Pliny does not state that the Lucani are named after Lucius. In Book III he
merely says '...the Lucani, descended from the
Samnites, under their leader,
Lucius.' The suggestion here leans far more to a man named Lucius who
currently leads the tribe. However, many other, modern sources seem to
repeat the tale that he was the original leader of the Lucani without any
apparent justification for it, and also ignoring the legendary presence of
Lamiscus (see above), so it has to be included here for reasons of
completeness. How true it may be, given that Pliny does not directly support
it, is open to question.
fl c.550 BC
Lucius
Legendary 'founder' of the Lucani - more probably a later
leader.
390 BC
The Lucani score a significant victory when they defeat the Thurii (or
Thurians) at a location near the River Laus. The Thurii had formed a
Greek, mostly
Athenian,
colony on the Gulf of Taranto, close to Sybaris. The Lucani seize the
country to the south of the Laus and begin to settle it, but perhaps
only sparsely.
356 BC
By this time the Lucani have lost their southern territory to the
Brutii. This
new group is formed of Lucani members who have apparently revolted and seized
the region below the River Laus, close to the Tyrrhenian Sea, and over to the
River Crathis, close to the Gulf of Tarentum.
334 - 331 BC
At the
request of the embattled Greek colony of Taras, Alexander I Molossus embarks
with a force of Epirotes,
Macedonians and
Tarantines to Italy.
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. He 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.
This map shows the greatest extent of Etruscan influence in
Italy, during the seventh to fifth centuries BC, including the
Campania region to the south (click or tap on map to view full sized)
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.
298 BC
According to Livy, the Lucani agree an alliance with
Rome.
This allows Rome to capture the Greek colonies of Venusia in 291 BC (located
in the north of the modern region of Basilicata), and then Poseidonia (Latin
Paestum, in Campania) and Tarentum in 273 and 272 BC respectively.
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 face Rome's
might alone.
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 60,000. The Lucani (an
Hirpini) side with the
Carthaginians, but both the main protagonists ravage the region over the
course of more than one campaign during the war. Roman authority is
eventually renewed and Lucania declines as a result of the devastation.
This Lucanian coin shows the head of Heracles on the
left, wearing a leopard skin headdress, and Athena on
the right holding a shield, which can be dated to
207-204 BC
91 - 89 BC
Along with the Etruscans,
Iapyges,
Marrucini,
Marsi,
Paeligni,
Picentes, and
Vestini, the Lucani fight the
Social War against Rome
in which Rome's allies strive for, and are eventually granted, citizenship. The
Lucani fight against Rome, but their final defeat finishes them off as a people
capable of offering any further resistance to complete Roman integration. The
region declines generally, with the population of the former Greek coastal
colonies becoming reduced and wide swathes of land being abandoned to pasture
and forest growth.
91 - 89 BC
Marcus Lamponius
Commanded the Lucani during the Social War.
73 - 71 BC
A slave named Spartacus leads a slave revolt in southern
Italy. His numbers are
swelled by more and more slaves joining his forces in what is known as the
Third Servile War, but he is eventually defeated by Crassus in
battles at Brundisium, Lucania, and Silarus. Over six thousand slaves are
crucified along the Via Appia. Pompey gains the final victory over the
remaining slave force and the credit in
Rome, while Crassus is
almost forgotten.
