Ausones

"Ausones", (Ancient Greek: Αὔσονες; Italian: Ausoni) the original Greek form for the Latin "Aurunci," was a name applied by Greek writers to describe various Italic peoples inhabiting the southern and central regions of Italy. The term was used, specifically, to denote the particular tribe which Livy called the Aurunci, but later it was applied to all Italians, and Ausonia became a poetic term, in Greek and Latin, for Italy itself.

The usage, by ancient writers, in regard to national appellations is very vague and fluctuating, perhaps in no instance more so than in the case of the Ausones or Ausonians.

Originally "Aurunci" was the appellation given by the Romans to the people called "Ausones" by the Greeks: indeed, the two names are merely different forms of the same, as the letter "r" was a common variation for "s" in Latin (Aurunci = Auronici = Auruni = Ausuni). The identity of the two is distinctly asserted by Servius, and clearly implied by Cassius Dio, where he says that the name of Ausonia was properly applied only to the land of the Auruncans, between the Volscians and the Campanians. Nevertheless, it does not appear that the name "Aurunci" was ever employed by the Romans in the vague and extensive sense in which that of "Ausones" was used by the Greeks.

Further, it appears, by the later period of the fourth century BC, that the Romans came to distinguish the two names as applying to two separate political tribes of the same race. Evidently two parts of one people, both dwelling on the frontiers of Latium and Campania. For more details on this see Aurunci.

It is possible the Ausonians may have also been identical with the Oscans (Opicans), as they were occasionally referred to by the same name. Aristotle expressly states that the part of Italy towards Tyrrhenia was inhabited by the Opicans, "who were called, both formerly and in his time, by the additional name of Ausones".Antiochus of Syracuse stated, that Campania was at first occupied by the Opicans, "who were also called Ausonians".Hecataeus also appears to have held the same view with Antiochus, as he called Nola in Campania "a city of the Ausones ".

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