[3] It is thought that the Oenotrians represent the southern branch of a very old ethno-linguistic group, different from the proto-Latin one, which occupied the Tyrrhenian Sea area from Liguria to Sicily (Ligurian/Sicanian layer).
Ancient authors from the 1st c. BC state that Oenotria was named after Oenotrus, the youngest of the fifty sons of Lycaon who migrated there from Arcadia in Peloponnese, Greece.
[7][8][9] However, inscriptions from the 6th or the 5th century BC in the ancient Oenotrian settlement of Tortora reveal that they spoke an Italic language.
[10][11] Virgil (70-21 BC) mentions them as the settlers whose descendants now call their land Italy after the name of their leader Italus.
[12] Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD) mentions that "...opposite Velia are Pontia and Isacia, both known under the name of Oenotrides, a proof that Italy was formerly possessed by the Oenotrians".