[654] Livy, viii, 24.
[655] For the early habitation of Sikels or Siculi in Latium and Campania, see Dionys. Hal. A. R. i, 1-21: it is curious that Siculi and Sicani, whether the same or different, the primitive ante-Hellenic population of Sicily, are also numbered as the ante-Roman population of Rome: see Virgil, Æneid, viii, 328, and Servius ad Æneid. xi, 317.
The alleged ancient emigration of Evander from Arcadia to Latium forms a parallel to the emigration of Œnotrus from Arcadia to southern Italy as recounted by Pherekydês: it seems to have been mentioned even as early as in one of the Hesiodic poems (Servius ad Virg. Æn. viii, 138): compare Steph. Byz. v. Παλλάντιον. The earliest Latin authors appear all to have recognized Evander and his Arcadian emigrants: see Dionys. Hal. i, 31-32, ii, 9, and his references to Fabius Pictor and Ælius Tubero, i, 79-80; also Cato ap. Solinum, c. 2. If the old reading Ἀρκάδων, in Thucyd. vi, 2 (which Bekker has now altered into Σικελῶν), be retained, Thucydidês would also stand as witness for a migration from Arcadia into Italy. A third emigration of Pelasgi, from Peloponnesus to the river Sarnus in southern Italy (near Pompeii), was mentioned by Conon (ap. Servium ap. Virg. Æn. vii, 730).
[656] Herodotus (i, 24-167) includes Elea (or Velia) in Œnotria,—and Tarentum in Italia; while Antiochus considers Tarentum as in Iapygia, and the southern boundary of the Tarentine territory as the northern boundary of Italia: Dionysius of Halikarnassus (A. R. ii, 1) seems to copy from Antiochus when he extends the Œnotrians along the whole south-western corner of Italy, within the line drawn from Tarentum to Poseidonia, or Pæstum. Hence the appellation Οἰνωτρίδες νῆσοι to the two islands opposite Elea (Strabo, vi, p. 253). Skymnus Chius (v. 247) recognizes the same boundaries.
Twelve Œnotrian cities are cited by name (in Stephanus Byzantinus) from the Εὐρώπη of Hekatæus (Frag. 30-39, ed. Didot): Skylax in his Periplus does not name Œnotrians; he enumerates Campanians, Samnites, and Lucanians (cap. 9-13). The intimate connection between Milêtus and Sybaris would enable Hekatæus to inform himself about the interior Œnotrian country.
Œnotria and Italia together, as conceived by Antiochus and Herodotus, comprised what was known a century afterwards as Lucania and Bruttium: see Mannert, Geographie der Griech. und Römer, part ix, b. 9, ch. i, p. 86. Livy, speaking with reference to 317 B. C., when the Lucanian nation as well as the Bruttians were in full vigor, describes only the sea-coast of the lower sea as Grecian,—“cum omni orâ Græcorum inferi maris a Thuriis Neapolim et Cumas,” (ix, 19.) Verrius Flaccus considered the Sikels as Græci (Festus, v, Major Græcia, with Müller’s note).
[657] Sophoklês, Triptolem. Fr. 527, ed. Dindorf. He places the lake Avernus, which was close to the Campanian Cumæ, in Tyrrhenia: see Lexicon Sophocleum, ad calc. ed. Brunck, v. Ἄορνος. Euripidês (Medea, 1310-1326) seems to extend Tyrrhenia to the strait of Messina.
[658] Aristot. Polit. vii, 9, 3. ᾤκουν δὲ τὸ μὲν πρὸς τὴν Τυῤῥηνίαν Ὀπικοὶ, καὶ πρότερον καὶ νῦν καλούμενοι τὴν ἐπίκλησιν Αὔσονες. Festus: “Ausoniam appellavit Auson, Ulyssis et Calypsûs filius, eam primam partem Italiæ in quâ sunt urbes Beneventum et Cales: deinde paulatim tota quoque Italia quæ Apennino finitur, dicta est Ausonia,” etc. The original Ausonia would thus coincide nearly with the territory called Samnium, after the Sabine emigrants had conquered it: see Livy, viii, 16; Strabo, v, p. 250; Virg. Æn. vii, 727, with Servius. Skymnus Chius (v, 227) has copied from the same source as Festus. For the extension of Ausonians along various parts of the more southern coast of Italy, even to Rhegium, as well as to the Liparæan isles, see Diodor. v, 7-8; Cato, Origg. Fr. lib. iii, ap. Probum ad Virg. Bucol. v, 2. The Pythian priestess, in directing the Chalkidic emigrants to Rhegium, says to them,—Ἔνθα πόλιν οἴκιζε, διδοῖ δέ σοι Αὔσονα χώραν (Diodor. Fragm. xiii, p. 11, ap Scriptt. Vatic. ed. Maii). Temesa is Ausonian in Strabo, vi, p. 255.
[659] Thucyd. vi. 3; Aristot. ap. Dionys. Hal. A. R. i, 72. Ἀχαιῶν τινας τῶν ἀπὸ Τροίης ἀνακομιζομένων,—ἐλθεῖν εἰς τὸν τόπον τοῦτον τῆς Ὀπικῆς, ὃς καλεῖται Λάτιον.
Even in the time of Cato the elder, the Greeks comprehended the Romans under the general, and with them contemptuous, designation of Opici (Cato ap. Plin. H. N. xxii, 1: see Antiochus ap. Strab. v, p. 242).