Messapii

• Ligurians
• Veneti
• Etruscan
• Piceno
• Umbrians
• Latins
• Osker
• Messapians
• Greeks

The Messapians were the inhabitants of the southern part of Japygien (Puglia ) - ie the area around the present-day cities of Taranto, Brindisi and Lecce. The Messapians were related to the Peuketiern ( in the present province of Bari) and the Daunians ( in the present province of Foggia), also known under the name Salentine. Their main cities were Uzentum, Rudiae, Brundisium and Uriah.

It is thought that the name Messapians "people between two seas " means, because they had settled in southern Apulia: between the Adriatic and the Ionian Sea. They intermingled with the present population and thus founded the first cities where they introduced their customs and traditions. According to the Greek historian Herodotus came the Messapians that had a uniform and compact ethnic people, by the Cretans from. Today, however, thinks that the Messapians from Illyria came and that they came around 1000 BC to Otranto. Herodotus also mentioned that the Messapians had inflicted on the Greeks of Tarentum in 473 BC a serious defeat. Herodotus she brought the mythical King Minos of Crete in conjunction.

Only a sparse group of inscriptions in Messapic language is still preserved; some of them can be seen in the National Archaeological Museum in Taranto.