Thomas Ashby

“ LUCANIA, in ancient geography, a district of southern Italy, extending from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Gulf of Tarentum. To the north it adjoined Campania, Samnium and Apulia, and to the south it was separated by a narrow isthmus from the district of Bruttii. It thus comprised almost all the modern province of the Basilicata, with the greater part of the province of Salerno and a portion of that of Cosenza. The precise limits were the river Silarus on the north-west, which separated it from Campania, and the Bradanus, which flows into the Gulf of Tarentum, on the north-east ”

“ The Lucanians gradually conquered the whole country (with the exception of the Greek towns on the coast) from the borders of Samnium and Campania to the southern extremity of Italy. Subsequently the inhabitants of the peninsula, now known as Calabria, broke into insurrection, and under the name of Bruttians established their independence, after which the Lucanians became confined within the limits already described. ”

“ Close to its southern frontier stood Sybaris, which was destroyed in 510 B.C., but subsequently replaced by Thurii. On the west coast stood Posidonia, known under the Roman government as Paestum; below that came Elea or Velia, Pyxus, called by the Romans Buxentum, and Laus, near the frontier of the province towards Bruttium. ”