[2] Such, along the shores of the Tyrrhenian Sea, are the possessions of the Leucani, which at first did not reach to the other sea;1 the Greeks who dwelt on the Gulf of Tarentum possessed it. But before the coming of the Greeks there were no Leucani, the Chones2 and Œnotri possessed these territories. But when the Samnites had greatly increased, and expelled the Chones and Œnotri, and driven the Leucani into this region, while the Greeks possessed the seacoast on both sides as far as the straits, the Greeks and the Barbarians maintained a lengthened contest. The tyrants of Sicily, and afterwards the Carthaginians, at one time making war against the Romans, for the acquisition of Sicily, and at another, for Italy itself, utterly wasted all these regions. The Greeks, however, succeeded in depriving the ancient inhabitants of a great portion of the midland country, beginning even as early as the Trojan war; they increased in power, and extent of territory, to such a degree, that they called this region and Sicily, the Magna Grœcia. But now the whole region, except Tarentum, Rhegium, and Neapolis, has become barbarian,3 and belongs partly to the Leucani and Bruttii, partly to the Campani; to these, however, only in name, but truly to the Romans; for these people have become Roman. However, it is incumbent on one who is treating of uni- versal geography, to speak both of things as they now are, and of some of those that have been, and especially when they are important. Of the Leucani, who border upon the Tuscan Sea, mention has already been made; those who possess the midland regions dwell above the Gulf of Tarentum, but these, as well as the Bruttii, and the Samnites themselves, the progenitors of both, have been so maltreated [by the Romans], that it is difficult to determine the boundaries of each people. The reason of this is, that there no longer remains separately any of the institutions common to these nations; and their peculiarities of language, of military and civil costume, and such particulars, have passed away; besides, even their places of abode, considered separately and apart, possess nothing worthy of observation.
1 i. e. the Gulf of Tarentum.
2 Strabo seems here to distinguish the Chones from the Œnotri, and the CEnotri from the Greeks. According to Cluvier (Ital. Antiq. cap. 16, p. 1323) here was a double error: ‘not only (says he) Aristotle, but Antiochus, according to Strabo's own testimony, positively affirmed that the Chones and Œnotri were one and the same nation, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Antiq. Roman. lib. i. § 11) makes no doubt that the Œnotri were of Greek origin.’ But Mazochi justifies the distinction between the Chones and the Œnotri, and shows cause to doubt that the Œnotri were of Greek origin.
3 ἐκβεβαοͅβαοͅῶσθαι. We think with Mazochi (Prodrom. ad Heracl. pseph. diatrib. 2, cap. 7, sect. 2) that, by the above word, Strabo probably expressed that, at the time when he wrote, Tarentum, Rheggio, and Naples were the only cities founded by the Greeks in Italy, which, although become Roman, retained the language, laws, and usages of their mother country.
The Geography of Strabo. Literally translated, with notes, in three volumes. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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