Iapyges

Coin portraying Hercules from Oria, Roman age, the most ancient Iapygian city.

The Iapyges (Greek: Ἰάπυγες) or Iapygians were an Indo-European people who inhabited the heel of Italy (modern Apulia) before being absorbed by the Romans.

Identity

The Iapyges have unknown[1][2] origins but could have been an Illyrian tribe.[3]

They spoke the Messapian language since the Messapians themselves were the southernmost tribe of the Iapyges. Their other tribes included the Dauni and the Peucetii.[4]

The name Iapyges is derived from Greek authors, who linked the tribe's origin to Daedalus's son Iapyx. They were called Apuli, Salentini (or Sallentini) and Calabri by Roman authors. Iapygians were akin to the Oenotrians, an ancient Italic people who lived in the territory of Basilicata and Northern Calabria.

The genetive forms, -aihi- and -ihi- corresponding to the Sanskrit -asya- and the Greek -oio- , appear to indicate that the dialect belongs to the Indo-Germanic family. Other indications, such as the use of the aspirated consonants and the avoiding of the letters m and t as terminal sounds, show that this Iapygian dialect was essentially different from Italian and corresponds in some respects to the Greek dialects.

The supposition of an especially close affinity between the Iapygian nation and the Hellenes finds further support in the frequent occurrence of the names of Greek divinities in the inscriptions and the surprising facility with which the people became Hellenized, presenting a striking contrast to the shyness in the respect of the other Italian Nations. Apulia, which in the time of Timaeus (400) was still described as a barbarous land, had in the sixth century become a province thoroughly Greek, although no direct colonization from Greece had taken place.

The character of the Iapygian people, little capable of resistance, easily merging into other nationalities, agrees well with the hypothesis, to which their geographical position adds probability, that they were the oldest immigrants or the historical autochthones of Italy.

[5]

Punic Wars

The Iapygians are mentioned by Polybius as having provided Socii troops for Rome's armies in the wars against Carthage.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Outline of Universal History, Volume 1 by George Park Fisher, 2009, page 232, "... now Calabria, and in Apulia, there was another people, the Iapygians, whose origin is not certain, but who were not so far removed..."
  2. ↑ The student's atlas of classical geography, consisting of fifteen maps, constructed and engraved by Edward Weller ... and descriptive letterpress by Leonhard Schmitz, Michigan Historical Reprint Series, 2005, page 14, "In the south-eastern peninsula we meet with the Iapygians, of unknown origin: Central Italy contained a great number of tribes..."
  3. ↑ Talbert, Richard J. A. Atlas of Classical History. Routledge, 1985, ISBN 0-415-03463-9, p. 85. "...from Illyrians, known as Iapyges, who settled first in the heel of Italy and then spread north..."
  4. ↑ Peck, Harry Thurston. Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1898, "Apulia". "A district which included, in its widest signification, the whole of the southeast of Italy from the river Frento to the promontory Iapygium. In its narrower sense it was the country east of Samnium, on both sides of the Aufidus, the Daunia and Peucetia of the Greeks; the southeast part was called Calabria by the Romans. The Greeks gave the name of Daunia to the north part of the country from the Frento to the Aufidus, of Peucetia to the country from the Aufidus to Tarentum and Brundusium, and of Iapygia or Messapia to the whole of the remaining southern part; though they sometimes included under Iapygia all Apulia in its widest meaning. The country was very fertile, especially in the neighbourhood of Tarentum, and the mountains afforded excellent pasturage. The population was of a mixed nature: they were for the most part of Illyrian origin, and are said to have settled in the country under the guidance of Iapyx, Daunius, and Peucetius, three sons of an Illyrian king, Lycaon. Subsequently many towns were founded by Greek colonists. The Apulians joined the Samnites against the Romans, and became subject to the latter on the conquest of the Samnites."
  5. ↑ Mommsen, Theodor (1885). The History of Rome. Leipzig: Reimer & Hirsel, Leipzig.
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