Lucanian Infantry
Spearmen Infantry(0.6.7)Side / Back
Short description
Spear infantry equipped with a hoplon and sword for melee.
Description
These Lucanians fight as spear infantry, protected by a hoplon and breastplates, and equipped with a sword for close-in work.
According to theory, the Lucanians' name was derived from the Greek work "lykos" ("wolf"), referring to its use by the Sabellic people as a totemic animal acting as a guide during their migrations. To other scholars, the name would stem from the Latin locus ("sacred wood"). According to Pliny the Elder, the names of their tribe were Atinati, Bantini, Eburini, Grumentini, Numestrani, Potentini, Sontini, Sirini, Tergilani, Ursentini and Volcentani. The Lucani spoke a dialect of the Umbrian-Oscan language, like their neighbours, the Samnites, who had absorbed the Oscii in the 5th century BC. Strabo reported that they had a democratic constitution, save in time of war, when a dictator was chosen from among the regular magistrates.
Around the middle of the fifth century BC, the Lucani moved south into Oenotria, driving the indigenous tribes, known to the Greeks as Oenotrians, Chones, and Lauternoi, into the mountainous interior. The Lucanians were engaged in hostilities with the Greek colony of Taras/Tarentum, and with Alexander, king of Epirus, who was called in by the Tarentine people to their assistance, in 326 BC, thus providing a precedent for Epirote interference in the affairs of Magna Graecia. When Pyrrhus of Epirus landed in Italy, 281 they were among the first to declare in his favour, and after his abrupt departure they were reduced to mere subjects of Rome in a ten year campaign (272), in which Roman influence was extended by the colonies of Venusia (291), Paestum (Greek Posidonia, refounded in 273), and above all Roman Tarentum (refounded in 272). Enmity continued to run deep, and they espoused the cause of Hannibal during the Second Punic War (216) but, Lucania was severely ravaged by both armies during several campaigns. The country never recovered from these disasters, and under the Roman government fell into decline, and the Social War, in which the Lucanians took part with the Samnites (90 - 88 BC), proved the finishing blow. In the aftermath, they, like the majority of Italian peoples, were Latinised and absorbed into Roman Italy.