Ausones (Ausoni)
Part of The Encyclopedia of Southern Italy.
Ausones (Ausoni): An ancient Italic people of southern Italy often confused with the Aurunci, with whom they may have shared a common ancestry. According to a legend recorded by Diodorus Siculus, they are named for their first king Ausonus, a son of Odysseus (Ulysses) and either the enchantress Circe or the nymph Calypso. Ausonus was the father of Liparus, who gave his name to the Lipari Islands.
The historical Ausones were one of three peoples (the others being the Enotri and the Japigi-Iapygians) who the ancient Greeks had contact with when they began to colonize Magna Graecia. They where an Indo-European people and had probably lived in Italy since at least the 17th century BC. Their territory, known as Ausonia, encompassed southern Latium and much of northern Campania as far as the river Sele. The historian Diodorus Siculus states that they also inhabited the southern tip of the “toe” of Italy, around the city of Rhegium (mod. Reggio di Calabria). It was probably part of this latter group who crossed over into Sicily in c1270 BC. The principal Ausonian towns were Ausona, Minturnae, Vescia and Sinuessa. Archaeology has also revealed a site near modern Calvi Risorta [CE], was an Ausonian city.
>The Ausones still existed as a people when the Romans began to push into southern Italy. The two peoples formed an alliance against the Samnites.
>The name Ausonia was occasionally extended for all of Italy.