European Kingdoms

Morgetes (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 Morgetes group of Italics during much of the Italian Iron Age were located in the back half of the 'toe' of Italy, in the section to the north-east of the Greek colony of Hipponium and perhaps as far north as Sybaris. With a tribal capital at Morgantium, they were neighboured to the north by the Chones and Brutii, to the west by the Itali, and along the coastline on both sides by various Greek colonies of Magna Graecia.

The Oscan-Umbrian group of which the Morgetes were part are largely accepted as being Indo-European (perhaps proto-Celts) who migrated into the peninsula from the north. Their early history is unknown, but they are distinguished by ancient writers as being a sub-division of the Oenotri, along with the Chones and Itali.

All four groups may have had an Illyrian or Greek origin, at least in part, probably with a large degree of intermixing with earlier, pre-Indo-European people in Italy. The Illyrian connection at least would have carried a good deal of cultural and genetic similarity with the Italics.

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(Information by Peter Kessler, with additional information by Edward Dawson, from Samnium and the Samnites, E T Salmon, 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), from Paleo-Balkan Languages, V Neroznak, from Ancient Languages of the Balkans, R Katicic, from The Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language, M Fasmer, from Basic Romance Linguistics, E Bourcier, from Research in Popular Latin and its links with Romance languages, N Korletyanu, from Brief Historical Grammar of the Latin Language, W Lindsey, from The Corpus of Oscan Inscriptions, I Tsvetaev, from A Historical Grammar of the Latin Language, I Tronsky, 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).)

12th century BC?

Legendary successor to King Italus of the Itali.

In his work, Politics, Aristotle names a king of Oenotria called Italus who is the successor to King Oenotrus himself. Oenetria at this time is taken to refer to the 'toe' of the Italian 'boot, an area which is known today as Calabria.

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)

Aristotle claims that the Oenotri of this region had changed their name to the Itali. It is this name which is used by later Greek settlers to refer to the entire land, but this origin story is probably sheer invention.

Thucydides claims that Italus is a king of the Siculi, while after diligent research Dionysius concludes that the Itali and Siculi are one people. King Morges is claimed as the successor to Italus, and Siculus the successor to Morges, which seems to illustrate the belief that the Itali, Morgetes, Oenotri, and Siculi have a shared heritage.

7th century BC

With the beginning of the Italian Iron Age, signs of territorial variation begin to emerge, although the gradual differentiation between a western area, an eastern area, and an Alpine area will only acquire more consistency in the seventh century BC. This is the Golasecca cultural period.

The modern Sila National Park would have fallen within the territory of the Morgetes, located as they were in the back half of the 'toe' of Italy, to the north-east of the Greek colony of Hipponium and perhaps as far north as Sybaris

Greek colonies along the coastal region of the 'toe' of Italy include Hipponium (modern Vibo Valentia) on the Gulf of Terina, Terina itself to the north (near modern Lamezia terme), Corsentia (modern Cosenza), which lies inland, probably on the northern border of Morgetes territory, and Petelia (modern Strongoli), Croton (modern Crotone), and Scylletium (near modern Catanzaro) on the eastern coastline, plus half a dozen more minor colonies.

As they begin to interact with the Italic natives, they start using the name of the neighbouring Itali as a reference to the entire region.

411 BC

Writing at this time, the reliable Greek historian Thucydides of Alimos (close to Athens), mentions the Siculi. He says that groups of Siculi still occupy the Italian mainland in his time. It is possible, given their close links in the past with the Itali (and therefore their close cousins the Morgetes), that both peoples could be Siculi in all but name.

The Siculi once occupied territory in central Italy as far as the Adriatic coast, but successive expulsions pushed them further south until they ended up on Sicily

Strabo claims that the Morgetes join the fortunes of their cousins, the Siculi, and migrate to Sicily where they intermarry with and are absorbed by the Siculi. Either way, the Morgetes are very poorly documented and receive no further mention after Thucydides.

The suggestion is either that they have indeed been absorbed by another Italic people, or that they have always been a branch of the Siculi (those which had remained on the Italian mainland), and that they now complete the migration to join their relatives on Sicily. Thereafter they share the same fate as the rest of the Siculi.