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" Ausones" (; ), the original name and the extant Greek form for the Latin "Aurunci", was a name applied by Greek writers to describe various Italic peoples inhabiting the southern and central regions of Italy.Encyclopædia Britannica, s. v. "Aurunci," http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/43464/Aurunci. The term was used, specifically, to denote the particular tribe which Livy termed the Aurunci, but later it was applied to all Italians, and Ausonia became a poetic term, in Greek and Latin, for Italy itself.Encyclopædia Britannica, s. v. "Aurunci," http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/43464/Aurunci.
Further, it seems, by the later period of the fourth century BC, that the Romans came to distinguish the two names as applying to two separate political tribes of the same race. cites Livy, viii. 16. Evidently two parts of one people, both dwelling on the frontiers of Latium and Campania. For more details on this see Aurunci.
Polybius, on the contrary, regarded the two nations as different, and spoke of Campania as inhabited by the Ausonians and Opicans. This does not necessarily prove that they were really distinct, as some authors mention the Opicans and Oscans as if they were two different nations when they are clearly the same. cites Strab. l. c.
However, the use of "Ausones" as identical with that of the Opicans may simply be due to the fact "Ausones" was used as a vague term for all inhabitants of the Italian peninsula, as stated above.Encyclopædia Britannica, s. v. "Aurunci," http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/43464/Aurunci.
On the whole, it is probable that the name was applied with little discrimination to all the native races who, prior to the invasion of the Samnites, occupied Campania and the inland mountainous region afterwards known as Samnium, and from thence came to be gradually applied to all the inhabitants of central Italy. But they seem to have been regarded by the best authorities as distinct from the Oenotrians, or Pelasgic nations, which inhabited the southern parts of the peninsula; see Aristot. l. c. though other authors certainly confounded them. Hellanicus of Lesbos according to Dionysius of Halicarnassus wrote of the Ausonians as crossing over into Sicily under their king Siculus, where the people meant are clearly the Siculi. cites Dionysius i. 22. Again, Strabo wrote of Temesa as founded by the Ausones, where he must probably mean the Oenotrians, the only people whom we know of as inhabiting these regions before the arrival of the Greeks. cites Strabo vi. p. 255.
The use of the name of Ausonia for the whole Italian peninsula was merely poetical, at least it is not found in any extant prose writer; and Dionysius indicates that it was used by the Greeks in very early times, associates it with Hesperides and Saturnia, both of them obviously poetical appellations. cites Dionysius i. 35. Lycophron, though he does not use the name of Ausonia, repeatedly applies the adjective "Ausontan" both to the country and people, apparently as equivalent to "Italian"; for he includes under the appellation, Arpi in Apulia, Caere in Etruria, the neighbourhood of Cumae in Campania, and the banks of the Crati in Lucania. cites Lycophron Alex. 593, 615, 702, 922, 1355. Apollonius Rhodius, a little later, seems to use the name of Ausonia precisely in the sense in which it is employed by Dionysius Periegetes and other Greek poets of later times (for the whole Italian peninsula). It was probably only adopted by the Alexandrian writers as a poetical equivalent for Italia, a name which is not found in any poets of that period. cites Apoll. Khod. iv. 553, 660, etc.; Dion. Per. 366, 383, etc. From them the name of Ausonia was adopted by the Roman poets in the same sense, cites Vergil Aen. vii. 55, x. 54, etc. and at a later period became not uncommon even in prose writers. The etymology of the name of Ausones is uncertain; but it seems not improbable that it is originally connected with the same root as Oscus or Opicus. cites Buttmann, Lexil. vol i. p. 68; Donaldson, Varronianus, pp.3, 4.
In one passage Livy speaks of Cales as their chief city; but a little later he tells us that they had three cities, Ausona, Minturnae, and Vescia, all of which seem to have been situated in the plains bordering on the Liris, not far from its outlet. cites Livy viii. 16, ix. 25. At this period they were certainly an inconsiderable tribe, and were able to offer but little resistance to the Romans. Their city of Cales was captured, and soon after occupied by a Roman colony, 333 BC; and though a few years afterwards the success of the Samnites at Lautulae induced them to rebel, their three remaining towns were easily reduced by the Roman consuls, and their inhabitants put to the sword. On this occasion Livy tells us that "the Ausonian nation was destroyed"; cites Livy ix. 25. it is certain that its name does not again appear in history, and is only noticed by Pliny among the extinct races which had formerly inhabited Latium. cites Pliny iii. 5. s. 9
According to different classical sources the Ausones were also settled in Calabria.In the territory of Reggio Calabria according to Diodorus Siculus, as also in Temesa (Strabo VI, 255) and Tauriano (Cato, Origines III). The Pelleni a tribe settled in the inland of Crotone is also claimed as Ausonian (Lycophron, Alexandra, vv. 910–929).
The Ausones allied with the Samnites against the Ancient Rome. The main Ausonian cities of Ausona, Minturno, Vescia and Sessa Aurunca, according to Livy were destroyed.Livy Ab Urbe Condita, IX, 25.
From 1240 to 850 BC the Aeolian Islands are occupied by a group of Ausones brought there by the legendary Liparus.Diodorus Siculus V,7. According to a legend Liparus is succeeded by Aeolus whose house, according to Homer, gave hospitality to Odysseus. This continuous occupation may have been interrupted violently when during the late 9th century BC the Ausonian culture site, Lipara, on the island of Lipari was burned and apparently not rebuilt. Around 1270 BC part of the Ausones relocated from Campania to Sicily.
The excavations on Lipari have revealed an assemblage which shares many features with those of contemporary Southern Italy (in its Subapennine-Protovillanovan phases). This insular culture has been named as Ausonian I (1250/1200–1150 BC) and II (1150–850 BC) and associated with the Pantalica I and II (Cassibile) phases in Sicily (See Luigi Bernabò Brea).
In the park of Roccamonfina remains of a polygonal line of walls belonging to the Ausonian civilization have been discovered.
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