On the basis of their language the Messapi are assumed originally to have been Illyrians who migrated to present-day southeastern italy from the western Balkan Peninsula, probably by the ninth century b. c.e. or earlier. The Messapic, or Messapian language, is related to illyrian languages.
The Messapi lived on the heel of the boot of the italian Peninsula between the Adriatic and the ionian seas, as well as to the north in the region of Apulia (Puglia). Their name, with the root ap, “water,” possibly means “people living between two seas.” According to the first-century b. c.e. Roman poet Virgil, however, it means “master of horses,” and they were known to raise horses. The fifth-century B. C.E. Greek historian Herodotus mistakenly describes them as people from Crete who were shipwrecked on the coast of salento, and they are also known by the alternate name salentini.
The Messapi had extensive contacts with the Greeks of Tarentum (modern Taranto). inscriptions found on coins and other artifacts are in the Greek alphabet, and Messapian pottery is often decorated with Greek mythological beings. The Romans ultimately controlled their lands. some among the Messapi joined various tribes of Italics against Rome in the Social War of 90-88 b. c.e.
The Messapi are sometimes grouped as Iapyges with the Apuli and Peuceti living to the north, or the name is used synonymously with iapyges since all these groups spoke Messapic dialects.
Metanastae See Iazyges.
World History
