Bruttium, Bruttius

and Bruttiōrum Ager, more usually called Bruttii, after the inhabitants. The southern extremity of Italy, separated from Lucania by a line drawn from the mouth of the Laus to Thurii, and surrounded on the other three sides by the sea. It was the country called in ancient times Oenotria and Italia. The country is mountainous, as the Apennines run through it down to the Sicilian Straits; it contained excellent pasturage for cattle, and the valleys produced good corn, olives, and fruit. The earliest inhabitants of the country were Oenotrians. Subsequently some Lucanians, who had revolted from their countrymen in Lucania, took possession of the country, and were hence called Bruttii or Brettii, which word is said to mean “rebels” in the language of the Lucanians. This people, however, inhabited only the interior of the land; the coast was almost entirely in the possession of the Greek colonies. At the close of the Second Punic War, in which the Bruttii had been the allies of Hannibal, they lost their independence, and were treated by the Romans with great severity. They were declared to be public slaves, and were employed as lictors and servants of the magistrates.