Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/223

 LUCANIA. Lucania is evidently " the land of the Lu- canians :" but though no territorial designation in Italy became more clearly marked or generally adopted than this appellation, it was not till a com- paratively late period that it came into use. The name of the Lucanians was wholly unknown to the Greeks in the days of Thucydides ; and the tract subsequently known as Lucania was up to that time generally comprised imder the vague appellation of Oenotria, while its coasts were included in the name of Magna Graecia. Scylax is the earliest author in whom the name of Lucania and the Lu- canians is found ; and he describes them as extending from the frontiers of the Samnites and lapygians to the southern extremity of the Bruttian peninsula. (Scyl. pp. 3, 4, 5. §§ 12, 13.) We are fortunately able to trace with certainty the historical causes of this change of designation. The earliest inhabitants of the part of Italy after- wards known as Lucania, were the Oenotrians and Cliones, tribes whom there is good reason to refer to a Pelasgic stock. [Italia, p. 84. The few- particulars transmitted to us concerning them are fsiven under Oenotria.] These races appear to have been unwarlike, or at least incapable of offering any material opposition to the arms of the Greeks; so that when the latter established a line of colonies along the shores of the Tyrrhenian sea and the gulf of Tarentum, they seem to have reduced the barbarians of the interior to a state of at least nominal subjection with but little difficulty. Thus Sybaris extended her power from sea to sea, and founded the colonies of Posidouia, Laiis, and Scidrus on tlie western coast of Oenotria; while further to the S. Crotona and Locri followed her example. It is probable, however, that other means were employed by the Greeks as well as arms. The Pelasgic races of Oenotria were probably assimilated without much difficulty with their Hellenic rulers; and there seems reason to believe that the native races were to a considerable extent admitted to the privileges of citizens, and formed no unimportant element in the population of the cities of Jlagna Graecia. (Niebuhr, voL i. p. 60.) The history of the foundation and rise of the numerous Greek colonies, which gradually formed as it were a belt, encircling the whole southern peninsula of Italy, are more appropriately reserved for the article Magxa Graecia. It may here suffice to mention that the period immediately preceding the fall of Sy- baris (b. c. 510) may be taken as that during which the Greek cities were at the height of their power, and when their dominion was most widely extended. But though many of those cities suffered severely from domestic dissensions, we find no trace of any material change in their relations with the neigh- bouring barbarians, till the appearance of the Lu- canians at once produced an entire change in the aspect of affairs. The Lucanians were, according to the general tes- timony of ancient writers, a Sabellian race, — an off- shoot or branch of the Samnite nation, which, sepa- rating from the main body of that people, in the same manner as the Campanians, the Hirpini, and the Frentani had severally done, pressed on still further to the south, and established themselves in the country subsequently known as Lucania. (Strab. vi. p. 254; Plin. iii. 5. s. 10.) The origin of their name is unknown ; for the derivation of it from a leader of the name of Lucius (Plin. sxx. I. c. ; Etym. Magn. s. V. Aevicavoi) is too obviously a mere ety- LUCANIA. 207 mological fiction of late days to desei-ve attention. Nor have we any distinct information as to the period of their first appearance and establishment. Strabo describes them, without doubt, correctly, as first expelling (or more properly suhdaing) the Oeno- trians and Chones, and then turning their arms against the Greek cities on the coast. But it is not till they come into contact with these last that we have any account of their proceedings ; and we have, therefore, no information as to the commencement of their career. Even their wars with the Greeks are known to us only in a very imperfect and fragmen- taiy manner, so that we can scarcely trace the steps of their progress. But it is probable that it was not till after the conquest of Campania (about B.C. 420) that the Samnites began to extend their conquests to the southward. Niebuhr has justly observed that the tranquil foundation of the Athenian colony at Thurii, in n. c. 442, and the period of prosperity which allowed it at first to rise rapidly to power, sufficiently prove that the Lucanians had not as yet become formidable neighbours to the Gauls, at least on that side of the peninsula (Nieb. vol. i. p. 96). But they seemed to have first turned their anus against the Greek cities on the W. coast, and esta- blished a permanent footing in that quarter, before they came into collision with the more powerful cities on the Tarentine gulf. (Strab. i. p. 254.) Posidonia was apparently the first of the Greek cities which yielded to their arms, though the date of its conquest is uncertain. [Paestum. J It was probably soon after this that the Thurians, under the command of Clean- dridas, were engaged in war with the Lucanians, in which they appeared to have obtained some con- siderable successes. (Polyaen, ii. 10.) But the progress of the latter was still unchecked ; and the increasing danger from their power led to the forma- tion, in B. c. 393, of a defensive league among all the principal cities of Magna Graecia, with a view of resisting the Lucanians on the N., and the power of Dionysius on the S. (Diod. xiv, 91.) They might reasonably suppose that their combined arms would easily efi'ect this; but only three years later, B. C. 390, the forces of the confederates, among whom the Thurians took the lead, sustained a great de- feat near Laiis, in which it is said that 1 0,000 of the Greeks perished. (Diod. xiv. 101, 102; Strab. vi. p. 253.) After this success, the Lucanians seem to have spread themselves with but little opposition through the southern peninsula of Italy. The wars of the elder Dionysius in that region must have in- directly favoured their progress by weakening the Greek cities; and though he did not openly support the Lucanians, it is evident that he looked upon their successes with no unfavourable eyes. (Diod. xiv. 102.) Their continued advance towards the south, however, would soon render them in their turn a source of umbrage to the Syracusan despots, who had established a permanent footing in the Italian peninsula; hence we find the younger Diony- sius engaged in hostilities with the Lucanians, but apparently with little success; and after a vain attempt to exclude them from the southernmost peninsula of Bruttium, by fortifying the isthmus between the Hipponian and Scyllacian gulfs, he was obliged to conclude a treaty of peace with tliem iii B. c. 358. (Diod. xvi. 5; Strab. vi. p. 261.) This was about the period during which the Lu- canians had attained their greatest power, and extended their dominion to the limits which we find assigned to them by Srylax (pp. 3, 4). They