European Kingdoms

Paeligni (Italics)
Incorporating the Corfinienses, Sulmonenses, & Superequani

Indo-Europeans - Italic Tribes (Intro) Anatolian Tribes Balkans Tribes Baltic Tribes Celtic Tribes Germanic Tribes Italic Tribes Indo-Iranian/Aryan Tribes Slavic Tribes Tocharians (Intro)

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 Paeligni group of Italics during much of the Italian Iron Age were located in the Valle Peligna in the eastern centre of the country, now in the region of Abruzzo. They were neighboured to the north by the Sabini and Vestini, to the east by the Marrucini and Frentani, to the south by the Samnites, and to the west by the Marsi.

The Oscan-Umbrian group of which the Paeligni were part are largely accepted as being Indo-European (perhaps proto-Celts) who migrated into the peninsula from the north. They settled in communities in the Valle Peligna (which is also known as the Conca di Sulmona), a plateau in modern Abruzzo.

The valley's name appears to originate from the Greek 'peline' which means 'muddy', referring to the land left after an ancient lake that filled the bottom of the valley was drained away following earthquakes. The River Aternus (the modern Aterno) crosses the valley, placing this people a little way below the Vestini who were settled near its headwaters.

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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).)

325 - 309 BC

The Marsi ally themselves with the Romans as a means of removing Samnite mastery over them, while the Dauni, Iapyges, Lucani, Messapii, and Peucetii side with the Samnites at the start of the Second Samnite War.

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)

It is in this period that the Paeligni are first historically documented, when they are recorded as being confederates of the Marrucini, Marsi, and Vestini tribes.

This late appearance suggests that the Paeligni are a splinter from a larger group, a frequent process in the Italian Iron Age, but which group is unknown. Unusually, few of the ancient writers give them a background, although Ovid calls them descendants of the Sabini.

Inscriptions left by the Paeligni show marked similarities with those of the Samnites and Lucani, suggesting a shared heritage, but also showing enough differences to warrant regarding the Paeligni as an independent group which has been in existence for a good couple of centuries or more.

304 BC

Following the Roman destruction of the Aequi and the final defeat of the Samnites at the end of the Second Samnite War, the Frentani, Marrucini, Marsi, and Paeligni voluntarily accept their reintegration into Roman administrative rule. This period proves to be the end for the Golasecca culture within the Italian Iron Age.

This photo shows two sides of a Paeligni silver denarius which was minted in the city of Corfinium (on the eastern side of the Apennines) in 89 BC during the Social War

218 - 202 BC

The Second Punic War starts at Saguntum (near modern Valencia) in Iberia. Hannibal Barca attacks Roman territory, leading his armies over the Alps into Italy. While encouraging the reluctant Romans to commit to battle, he marches through the country devastating the lands of Rome's Italic allies, including that of the Marrucini, Marsi, and Paeligni.

Despite winning the anticipated battle at Cannae, Hannibal is eventually defeated by Scipio Africanus at the Battle of Zama in 202 BC, thereby ending the war.

91 - 89 BC

Along with the Etruscans, Lucani, Marrucini, Marsi, Picentes, Samnites, and Vestini, the Paeligni fight the Social War (Italian War, or Marsic War) against Rome. The war is the result of increasing inequality in Roman land ownership, and the spark for conflict is delivered by the assassination of the reforming Marcus Livius Drusus, whose efforts would have led to citizenship for all of Rome's allies.

Roman military tactics may have owed something to the Samnites, with this efficient and seasoned warrior force matching the Romans and bettering them in the fourth century BC

The role of the Paeligni in the war is not clear, although they choose their mountain fortress of Corfinium as their headquarters during the war, renaming it Vitellio (probably an Osco-Umbrian form of 'Italy'). They do not have their own senior commander so their forces are probably combined with those of the Marrucini or Vestini, but they do strike their own coins.

Although defeated, the Italic tribes are granted the Roman citizenship which had previously been withheld from them, and are gradually absorbed into the Roman Latin culture and language.