Bruttii (Italic tribe)

Alexander of Molossia is unexpectedly attacked near Pandosia, close to the frontiers of the Lucanians and Bruttii, and where he has taken up a permanent position on three hills.

Although he is able to cut the losses and kill the enemy leader in hand-to-hand combat, it is a severe setback.

When he tries to bring his army in safety by crossing a river, he is treacherously murdered by one of the two hundred Lucanian refugees who serve as his bodyguard.

The river happens to be called Acheron, like the river in western Greece.

Tarantum supports Hannibal’s war against Rome, but in 209 BCE, the commander of a Bruttian force betrays the city to the Romans.

Indiscriminate slaughter ensues and among the victims are the Bruttians who had betrayed the city.

Afterwards thirty thousand of the Greek inhabitants are sold as slaves.

Tarentum's art treasures, including the statue of Nikè (Victory) are carried off to Rome.

Fabius Maximus had had the command in Campania in 211 BCE, during the year of his fourth consulship, and admitted the young soldier Marcus Porcius Cato, who had served at Capua, to the honor of intimate friendship.

At the siege of Tarentum, Cato, later to be known as Cato the Elder to distinguish him from his great-grandson, Cato the Younger, is again at the side of Fabius.

The ancient Consentia, capital of the Italic tribe of the Bruttii, has long been a bulwark of the Italic people against the Hellenic influences of the Ionian colonies.

It was in this province that the Battle of Pandosia was fought, in which a small Italic army composed of Bruttii and Lucanians defeated Alexander the Great's uncle, Alexander of Epirus.

Located at the confluence of the Busento and Crati rivers, Cosenza has maintained a distinctive character, which marks it out among the cities of the region.

It falls to the Romans in 204.