messapian

Updated: June 17, 2025

As the coasts of Epirus and Acarnania had but a subordinate importance in the case of Hellas, so had the Apulian and Messapian coasts in that of Italy; and, while the regions on which the historical development of Greece has been mainly dependent Attica and Macedonia look to the east, Etruria, Latium, and Campania look to the west.

Theodor Mommsen - The History of Rome, Book I : The Period Anterior to the Abolition of the Monarchy

At the south-eastern extremity of Italy, in the Messapian or Calabrian peninsula, inscriptions in a peculiar extinct language have been found in considerable numbers; undoubtedly remains of the dialect of the Iapygians, who are very distinctly pronounced by tradition also to have been different from the Latin and Samnite stocks.

Theodor Mommsen - The History of Rome, Book I : The Period Anterior to the Abolition of the Monarchy