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BRUTTII

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 696 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BRUTTII , an See also:

ancient tribe of See also:lower See also:Italy. This tribe, called Bruttii and Brittii in Latin See also:inscriptions, and Bpieerox on See also:Greek coins and by Greek authors, occupied the See also:south-western. See also:peninsula of Italy in See also:historical times, the ager Bruttius (wrongly called Bruttium) corresponding almost exactly to the See also:modern See also:Calabria. It was separated from Lucania on the See also:north by a See also:line See also:drawn from the mouth of the See also:river Laus on the See also:west to a point a little south of the river Crathis on the See also:east. To See also:part or the whole of this peninsula the name Italia was first applied. In See also:alliance with the Lucanians the Bruttii made See also:war on the Greek colonies of the See also:coast and seized on Vibo in 356 B.C., and, though for a See also:time over-come by the Greeks who were aided by See also:Alexander of See also:Epirus and See also:Agathocles of See also:Syracuse, they reasserted their mastery of the See also:town from about the beginning of the 3rd See also:century B.C., and held it until it became a Latin See also:colony at the end of the same century (see Corp. Inscr. See also:Lat. x. p. 7, and the references there given). At this time they were speaking Oscan as well as Greek, and two of three Oscan inscriptions in Greek See also:alphabet still testify to the See also:language spoken in the town in the 3rd century B.C. We know, however, that the Bruttians, though at this date speaking the same language (Oscan) as the Samnite tribe of the Lucani, were not actually akin to them. The name Bruttii was used by the Lucanians to mean " runaway slaves," but it is considerably more likely that this signification was attached to the tribal name of the Bruttii from the historical fact that they had been conquered and expelled by the Samnite invaders (cf. the use of See also:Dam to mean" policemen " at See also:Athens, and still more closely the See also:German, See also:French and See also:English word " slave " derived from " Slav "), than that the tribe when living in territory it could See also:call its own should have adopted an opprobrious name taken from the language of hostile neighbours (see See also:Strabo vi. 1, 4; Diod.

Sic. xvi. 15). See also:

Mommsen pointed out (Unterital. Dialekte, p. 97) the See also:evidence of tradition (especially See also:Aristotle, Pol. 4 [7] 10) showing that the customs of the Bruttii had a certain See also:affinity with those of the pre-Hellenic inhabitants of See also:Greece, and it has been argued (Ridgeway apud See also:Conway, Ital. Dialects, p. 16) that a tradition (preserved in Stephanus of See also:Byzantium, s.v. Xio1) made it probable that they were called ll avyot. This evidence points to the conjecture that they were part of what is now generally called the Mediterranean See also:race (see, e.g. G. Sergi, The Mediterranean Race, Eng. trans., 1901; W.

Z. See also:

Ripley, Races of See also:Europe, p. 128). Many Indo-See also:European elements appear in their See also:place-names (e.g. See also:Sila=Latin See also:silva, Greek An; Temesa, cf. Gr. regevos or See also:Sanskrit tamas, darkness, See also:shadow), and none that suggest a non-Indo-European origin. A priori considerations suggest that they may have been akin to the Siceli, but of this at See also:present no See also:positive evidence can be given. As we have seen, the Bruttii were at the height of their See also:power during the 3rd century B.c. Their See also:chief towns were Consentia (See also:Cosenza), Petelia (near Strongoli), and Clampetia (Amantea). To this See also:period (about the time of the See also:Roman War against See also:Pyrrhus) is to be assigned the See also:series of their coins, and they appear to have retained the right of coinage even after their final subjugation by the See also:Romans (see B. V. See also:Head, Historia Numorum, p.

97). The See also:

influence of See also:Hellenism over them is shown by finds in the tombs and the fact that they spoke the Greek language as well as their own (bilingues in See also:Ennius). The mountainous See also:country, See also:ill-suited for agricultural purposes, was well adapted for these See also:hardy warriors,whose training was Spartan in its simplicity and severity. The Bruttii first came into collision with the Romans during the war with Pyrrhus, to whom they sent auxiliaries; after his defeat, they submitted, and were deprived of See also:half their territory in the Sila See also:forest, which was declared See also:state See also:property. In the war with See also:Hannibal, they were among the first to declare in his favour after the See also:battle of See also:Cannae, and it was in their country that Hannibal held his ground during the last See also:stage of the war (at Castrum Hannibalis on the gulf of Scylacium). (R. S. C.) The Bruttii entirely lost their freedom at the end of the Hannibalic war; in 194 colonies of Roman citizens were founded at Tempsa and Croton, and a colony with Latin rights at Hipponium called henceforward Vibo See also:Valentia. In 132 the See also:consul P. Popillius built the See also:great inland road from See also:Capua through Vibo and Consentia to Rhegium, while the date of the construction of the east and west coast roads is uncertain. Neither in the Social War, nor in the rising of See also:Spartacus, who held out a See also:long time in the Sila (71 B.C.), do the Bruttii See also:play a part as a See also:people. Vibo was the See also:naval See also:base of Octavian in the conflict with Sextus Pompeius (42-36 B.C.).

The most important product of the See also:

district was the See also:wood from the forests of the Sila, and the See also:pitch produced from it. The Sila also contained minerals, which were worked out in very See also:early times. The coast plains were in parts very fertile, especially the (now malarious) lower valley of the Crathis. Under the See also:empire, however, the whole district remained backward and was remarkable for the See also:absence of important towns, as the scarcity of ancient inscriptions, both Greek and Latin, shows: the Sila was state domain, and most of the See also:rest in the hands of large proprietors. See also:Augustus joined it with Lucania (from which it was divided by the See also:rivers leans and Crathis) to See also:form the third region of Italy. In the 2nd and 3rd centuries, for administrative and juridical purposes, it was sometimes (with Lucania) joined to See also:Apulia and Calabria. See also:Diocletian placed Lucania and Brittii (as the name was then spelt) under a corrector, whose See also:residence was at Rhegium. The boundaries of the See also:original third Augustan region had by that time become some-what altered, See also:Metapontum belonging to Calabria, and Salernum and the territory of the Picentini to the third region instead of the first (See also:Campania). From the 6th century, after the fall of the Ostrogothic power, and the See also:establishment of that of Bytan= tium in its place in south Italy, the name Calabria was applied to the whole of the south See also:Italian possessions of the Eastern empire, and the name of the Brittii entirely disappeared; and after the eastern peninsula (the ancient Calabria) had been taken by the See also:Lombards about A.D. 668, the western retained the name, and has kept it till the present See also:day. (T. As.) See Strabo vi. p.

253-265; See also:

Dion. Halic. xx. t, 4, 15; See also:Pliny, Nat. Hist. iii. 71-74; See also:Justin xii. 2, See also:xxiii. 1; F. See also:Lenormant, La Grande-Grece, i. (1881-1884) ; H. Nissen, Italische Landeskunde (1883-1902); C. Hulsen in Pauly-Wissowa's Realencyclopddie, iii. pt. i. (1897) ; E. H.

See also:

Bunbury in See also:Smith's See also:Dictionary of Greek and Roman See also:Geography; R. S. Conway, The See also:Italic Dialects (1897), for Bruttian inscriptions and See also:local and See also:personal names; P. Orsi in Atti del congresso stories (See also:Rome, 1904), v. 193 seq. ; M. Schipa, La See also:Ali razione del See also:nome Calabria (1895), whose conclusions are summarized in J. B. See also:Bury's edition of See also:Gibbon's Decline and Fall, v. p. 24, See also:note; other authorities in J. See also:Jung, " Geographie von Italien ' (1897) in I. See also:Muller's Handbuch der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft, Abteilung 3.

End of Article: BRUTTII

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