We are all aware of the Romans, the Gauls, the Greeks and their infulence in the Italian peninsula, but long before them there were countless other tribes and peoples that inhabited what is now Italy. I had never thought too much about that until I took part in a fantastic seminar by Nicola Mastronardi on the history of the Samnites, who inhabited parts of what are now parts of Molise, Puglia and Calabria. Nicola’s talk focuses mainly on the Samnites, but also touches on some of the other tribes outlined below.
Besides the Samnites there were many other tribes:
The Estruscans lived in what is now Tuscany
The Greeks, as we know, were in the South
The Latini and the Sabines lived in the area around Rome
The Lucanians lived south of the Samnites in what is now Calabria
The Siculians ( Sikeloi, Sikenoi and Elymoi ) lived in Sicily
The Enotrians lived on the Ionian and Tyrrhenian coasts
The Opicians lived in todays Campania
The Picenians Lived in what is now Le Marche
The Ligurians lived in, well Liguria
The Venti in Venitia
Several tribes, such as the Iapigi, lived in what is now Puglia
The Umbrians lived in Umbria of course
Finally the Nuragi lived on Sardinia
This probably explains a lot of the cultural and physical differences across one of the most diverse places in the world. To read more about each tribe you can visit:
But I know my grandparents came from Italy, how come I’m not 100% on my Italian DNA test? I know where I came from, why should I take a DNA test. Ahh, there just made up anyway, somebody I know took the test and it said they where only 10% Italian, how can that be? All valid questions. One thing we have to remember is that Italy was not united until the mid 19th Century.
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