The Lucani are classified as an Italic tribe. They inhabited the Apennines in present-day southern Italy by about 500 b. c.e. Their homeland,
LUCANI
Location:
Basilicata and Calabria in southern Italy
Time period:
Sixth to first century b. c.e.
Ancestry:
Italic
Language:
Oscan (Italic)
LUSITANI
Location:
Between the Douro and Tagus Rivers in central Portugal and western Spain
Time period:
Third to first century B. C.E.
Ancestry:
Iberian
Language:
Lusitanian (Iberian)
Known as Lucania, corresponds to present-day Basilicata and part of Calabria. An earlier name for the region was Oenotria, the homeland of the non-Indo-European-speaking Enotri. Some scholars group the Lucani with the Samnites, who also spoke Oscan dialects of Italic. Lucanian cities included Atena Lucana, Grumentum, and Teggiano.
The Lucani were allies of the Brutii living to their south and made war on colonies founded by Greeks. In about 400 b. c.e. the Lucani captured Paestum, a Greek city on the Gulf of Salerno (where elaborately painted Lucanian graves have been found).
The Lucani became allies of the Romans in 298 B. C.E. but opposed Rome in later conflicts. In the Pyrrhic War of 280-275 b. c.e. they supported Pyrrhus, king of Epirus; in the Second Punic War of 218-201 b. c.e. they supported the Carthaginians under Hannibal; in the Social War of 90-88 b. c.e. they allied themselves with other Italic-speaking tribes. After being Romanized, Grumentum became a flourishing commercial center. See also Italics.
World History
