 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Ausones" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(June 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
"Ausones" (Ancient Greek:Αὔσονες;Italian:Ausoni), the original name and the extant Greek form for the Latin "Aurunci", was a name applied by Greek writers to describe variousItalic peoples inhabiting the southern and central regions of Italy.[1] The term was used, specifically, to denote the particular tribe which Livy termed the Aurunci, but later it was applied to all Italians, and Ausonia became a poetic term, in Greek and Latin, for Italy itself.[2]
The usage, by ancient writers, in regard to national appellations is very vague and fluctuating, perhaps in no instance more so than in the case of the Ausones or Ausonians.[3]
Originally "Aurunci" was the appellation given by the Romans to the people called "Ausones" by the Greeks:[4][5] Indeed, the two names are merely different forms of the same, as around the 4th century BCE, Latin medial "s" (at this point representing [z]) shifted to “r” (pronounced [r]).[6] (Aurunci = Auronici = Auruni = Ausuni).[5][3] The identity of the two is distinctly asserted byServius,[7] and clearly implied byCassius Dio,[8] where he says that the name of Ausonia was properly applied only to the land of the Auruncans, between theVolscians and theCampanians. Nevertheless, it does not appear that the name "Aurunci" was ever employed by the Romans in the vague and extensive sense in which that of "Ausones" was used by the Greeks.[5]
Further, it seems, by the later period of the fourth century BC, that the Romans came to distinguish the two names as applying to two separate political tribes of the same race.[9] Evidently two parts of one people, both dwelling on the frontiers ofLatium andCampania.[3] For more details on this seeAurunci.
It is possible the Ausonians may have also been identical with theOscans (Opicans), as they were occasionally referred to by the same name.Aristotle expressly states that the part of Italy towardsTyrrhenia was inhabited by the Opicans, "who were called, both formerly and in his time, by the additional name of Ausones".[10]Antiochus of Syracuse stated, thatCampania was at first occupied by the Opicans, "who were also called Ausonians".[11]Hecataeus also seems to have had the same opinion as Antiochus, as he termedNola in Campania "a city of the Ausones ".[12]
Polybius, on the contrary, regarded the two nations as different, and spoke of Campania as inhabited by the Ausonians and Opicans. This does not necessarily prove that they were really distinct, as some authors mention theOpicans andOscans as if they were two different nations when they are clearly the same.[13]
However, the use of "Ausones" as identical with that of the Opicans may simply be due to the fact "Ausones" was used as a vague term for all inhabitants of the Italian peninsula, as stated above.[14]
Indeed, it is probable that the Greeks frequently applied the name with little regard to accuracy, and may have included races widely different under the common appellation of Ausonians, but it is impossible to account for this vague and general use of the name, unless the people to whom it referred shared many attributes and formed an important part of the population of central Italy. The precise relation in which they were considered as having to the Opicans or Oscans it is impossible to determine, nor perhaps were the ideas of the Greeks themselves about this very clear and definite. The passages already cited prove that they were considered as occupying the western coast of Campania, on which account the Lower Sea (Mare Inferum, as it was termed by the Romans), known subsequently as theTyrrhenian Sea, was in early ages commonly termed by the Greeks the Ausonian Sea.[a][15] Other accounts, however, represent them as originally an inland people, dwelling in the mountains aboutBeneventum.[16]Scymnus Chius also writes of them as occupying an inland region;[17] andStrabo states that they had occupied the mountain tract above the Pontine marshes,[18] and in Roman history only withVolscians.[3]
On the whole, it is probable that the name was applied with little discrimination to all the native races who, prior to the invasion of theSamnites, occupiedCampania and the inland mountainous region afterwards known asSamnium, and from thence came to be gradually applied to all the inhabitants of central Italy. But they seem to have been regarded by the best authorities as distinct from theOenotrians, orPelasgic nations, which inhabited the southern parts of the peninsula;[19] though other authors certainly confounded them.Hellanicus of Lesbos according toDionysius of Halicarnassus wrote of the Ausonians as crossing over into Sicily under their king Siculus, where the people meant are clearly the Siculi.[20] Again, Strabo wrote of Temesa as founded by the Ausones, where he must probably mean the Oenotrians, the only people whom we know of as inhabiting these regions before the arrival of the Greeks.[21]
The use of the name of Ausonia for the whole Italian peninsula was merely poetical, at least it is not found in any extant prose writer; and Dionysius indicates that it was used by the Greeks in very early times, associates it withHesperia andSaturnia, both of them obviously poetical appellations.[22]Lycophron, though he does not use the name of Ausonia, repeatedly applies the adjective "Ausontan" both to the country and people, apparently as equivalent to "Italian"; for he includes under the appellation,Arpi inApulia,Agylla inEtruria, the neighbourhood ofCumae in Campania, and the banks of theCrathis in Lucania.[23]Apollonius Rhodius, a little later, seems to use the name of Ausonia precisely in the sense in which it is employed byDionysius Periegetes and other Greek poets of later times (for the whole Italian peninsula). It was probably only adopted by the Alexandrian writers as a poetical equivalent for Italia, a name which is not found in any poets of that period.[24] From them the name of Ausonia was adopted by the Roman poets in the same sense,[25] and at a later period became not uncommon even in prose writers.[26] The etymology of the name of Ausones is uncertain; but it seems not improbable that it is originally connected with the same root as Oscus or Opicus.[27]
The firstGreek settlers found Italy inhabited by three major populations: Ausones,Oenotrians andIapyges. The Ausones spoke anIndo-European language.[citation needed]
The core of the Ausonian people lived in a territory termed Ausonia: during the 8th century BC it included what is now southernLazio andCampania until theSele river.[citation needed]
In one passageLivy speaks ofCales as their chief city; but a little later he tells us that they had three cities, Ausona, Minturnae, and Vescia, all of which seem to have been situated in the plains bordering on theLiris, not far from its outlet.[28] At this period they were certainly an inconsiderable tribe, and were able to offer but little resistance to the Romans. Their city of Cales was captured, and soon after occupied by a Roman colony, 333 BC; and though a few years afterwards the success of the Samnites at Lautulae induced them to rebel, their three remaining towns were easily reduced by the Roman consuls, and their inhabitants put to the sword. On this occasion Livy tells us that "the Ausonian nation was destroyed";[29] it is certain that its name does not again appear in history, and is only noticed by Pliny among the extinct races which had formerly inhabited Latium.[30]
According to different classical sources the Ausones were also settled inCalabria.[31]
The Ausones allied with theSamnites against theRomans. The main Ausonian cities ofAusona,Minturnae,Vescia andSinuessa, according toLivy were destroyed.[32]
According to a legend told byDiodorus Siculus, the king of the Ausones wasAuson, son ofUlysses andCirce (orCalypso). The son of Auson wasLiparus, from whence theLipari Islands derive their name.[citation needed]
From 1240 to 850 BC theAeolian Islands are occupied by a group of Ausones brought there by the legendary Liparus.[33] According to a legend Liparus is succeeded byAeolus whose house, according toHomer, gave hospitality toUlysses. This continuous occupation may have been interrupted violently when during the late 9th century BC theAusonian civilisation site,Lipara, on the island ofLipari was burned and apparently not rebuilt. Around 1270 BC part of the Ausones relocated fromCampania toSicily.[citation needed]
The excavations on Lipari have revealed an assemblage which shares many features with those of contemporary Southern Italy (in its Subapennine-Protovillanovan phases). This insular culture has been named as Ausonian I (1250/1200–1150 BC) and II (1150–850 BC) and associated with thePantalica I and II (Cassibile) phases in Sicily (SeeLuigi Bernabò Brea).[citation needed]
| This sectiondoes notcite anysources. Please helpimprove this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged andremoved.(March 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Cales, in the commune ofCalvi Risorta (province of Caserta,Campania), of which remains has been found, has been identified as an Ausonian city.
In the park ofRoccamonfina remains of a polygonal line of walls belonging to the Ausonian civilization have been discovered.
"In multis verbis, in quo antiqui dicebant s, postea dicunt r... foedesum foederum, plusima plurima, meliosem meliorem, asenam arenam."
— Varr.De lingua Latina, VII, 26.
Bunbury, Edward Hurbert (1854)."Aurunci". InSmith, William (ed.).Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Vol. I. London: John Murray. p. 343. Bunbury, Edward Hurbert (1854)."Ausones". InSmith, William (ed.).Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Vol. I. London: John Murray. pp. 345–346.