Messapians
All three tribes spoke the Messapian language, but had developed separate archaeological cultures by the seventh century BC.
The Messapians lived in the eponymous region Messapia, which extended from Leuca in the southeast to Kailia and Egnatia in the northwest, covering most of the Salento peninsula.
Starting in the third century BC, Greek and Roman writers distinguished the indigenous population of the Salento peninsula differently.
According to Strabo, the names Iapygians, Daunians, Peucetians and Messapians were exclusively Greek and not used by the natives, who divided the Salento in two parts.
The northern part on the Adriatic belonged to the Kalabroi and extended from Otranto to Egnatia with its hinterland.
Strabo makes it clear that in his time, the end of the first century BC, most people used the names Messapia, Iapygia, Calabria and Salentina interchangeably for the Salento.
[6] The names Messapii (Ancient Greek: Μεσσάπιοι) and Messapia are usually interpreted as "(the place) Amid waters", Mess- from Proto-Indo-European *medhyo-, "middle" (cf.
Micitus, who was from the house of Anassilaus, had been left by him as regent of Rhegium and is the same one who, driven out from Rhegium and settled in Tegea in Arcadia, consecrated the numerous statues in Olympia, which everyone knows.»In addition to the Herodothean story, there is the story of the Cretan king Idomeneus, another piece of what we could define as the "Minoan cycle", that is, that literary tradition which sees the ethnogenesis of the Messapian people in the mixing between the Cretan settlers and the local indigenous people Salento.
In fact, the Latin author tells of how the monarch Idomeneus, expelled from Crete following a civil uprising, had sought refuge together with his army in the Illyrian kingdom of King Divitius.
From here, joining a further army generously offered by the Illyrian monarch, to which was added a large group of Locrian refugees, he set sail for Salento and settled there, displacing his army in twelve cities and thus giving life to the Messapic dodecapolis.
The Cretan, Illyrian and Locrian refugees led by King Idomeneus, who became permanent inhabitants of the Salento districts, would finally collectively recognize themselves with the ethnonym of "Sallentines", since they had made friends "in salo", at sea".
[14][15] The oldest findings were made in archaeological excavations in some caves near Otranto and Roca; the first stable settlements were identified in the cities of Oria, Cavallino, Vaste and Muro Leccese and can be dated back to the 8th century BC).
we move from constructions in huts with a plinth in irregular stones, elevation in raw bricks (clay and straw) and roofing with intertwined branches (one was rebuilt in Vaste for educational purposes) to constructions with multiple rooms, quadrangular in shape, with low walls dry stone and brick and tile roofing.
In 473 BC, the Greek city of Tarentum (which was on the border with Messapia) and its ally, Rhegion, tried to seize some of the towns of the Messapii and Peucetii.
They provided archers for Athens' massive expeditionary force sent to attack Syracuse in Sicily (415–13 BC).
During Hannibal's invasion of Italy in the Second Punic War (218–201 BC), the Messapii remained loyal to the Romans.
The Battle of Cannae, where Hannibal routed the forces of the Romans and their Italic allies, was fought in the heart of the neighbouring Peucetii territory.
Non mi vergogno punto di propalare l’origine de’ nostri Maggiori.
Mi vergogno, Eccellenza, parlando seco lei senz’Arbitri dirle, come io nell’Italia abbia tratta la mia origine, e derivati i miei natali, sebbene alcuni scrittori posero il suolo Giapiggio fuor dell’Italia.
