Aurunci
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Aurunci were an Italic population which lived in southern Italy from around the 1st millennium BC. Of Indo-European origin, their language belonged to the Oscan group. The Auruncan territory extended south from that of the Volsci, in the area of Roccamonfina, between the Liri and the Volturno rivers.
The Aurunci are often confused with the Ausones1, which however lived in different cities nearer to the Tyrrhenian coast.
The Roman sources describe them as an unevoluted population, which preferred to live in defensive villages over the tops of the hills. The Aurunci were allied with the Latin colony of Pomezia, attacked by the Romans in the 6th century BC. the Romans subjected them only after the Samnite Wars (313 BC).
The Aurunci mountains and city of Sessa Aurunca bears their name.
[edit] Notes
1: For example, the former Wikipedia article, basing on dated information from 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica, wrongly identified the term "Ausoni" with the way Aurunci called themselves.
