Oenotrians

The Oenotrians ("tribe led by Oenotrus" or "people from the land of vines - Οἰνωτρία") were an ancient people of possibly Greek origin who inhabited a territory from Paestum to southern Calabria in southern Italy. By the sixth century BC, the Oenotrians had been absorbed with other Italic tribes.

Ancient Greek writers stated that Oenotrians arrived there at the beginning of the Iron Age (11th century BC) from Greece through the Strait of Otranto together with other people of the same ethnic group. According to Pausanias and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Oenotria was named after Oenotrus, one of the fifty (the youngest) sons of Lycaon who migrated there from Arcadia in Peloponnese. According to Antoninus Liberalis, their arrival triggered the migration of the Elymians to Sicily. The settlement of the Greeks with the first stable colonies, such as Metapontum, founded on a native one (Metabon), pushed the Oenotrians inland. From these positions a "wear and tear war" was started off with the Greek colonies, which they plundered more than once. From the 5th century BC onwards, they disappeared under the pressure of a Sabellian people, the Lucanians.