Aurunci

The Ausonians (Greek Αὔρουγκοι; Latin Aurunci, also Ausones ) were an Italic people who were resident in the regions southeast of Rome in pre-Roman times.

The Ausonians belonged to the Oscan ethnic and linguistic group. Their settlement area lay between the rivers Liris and Volturnus, on the border between Lazio and Campania. Their capital city was Suessa (today Sessa Aurunca in the province of Caserta). In prehistoric times, ie before their territory was reduced by the encroachment of the Samnites and Sidiciner, their settlement area appears to have been larger and expanded from Volskergebirge to the Campanian level.

In the Greek form Αὔσονες ( Ausones ) the name was also used for the inhabitants of a vast region that encompassed more than the actual settlements of the Ausonians. In poetry the name Ausonia was later used for the whole of central Italy, and sometimes even as a metonymy for Italy as such.

In the course of the 4th century BC came the remaining settlements of the Ausonians under the dominion of the Romans, BC led war in the years 345, 340, 337 and 314 against it. In the period following the Ausonians quickly took over the culture and language of the Romans.