HYDRUNTUM (Ὑδροῦς), now Otranto, had probably Tarentine epoeci, by whom it was hellenised. It was a place of great consequence, being the point from which people sailed across to Apollonia and Oricus, as now people sail from Calais to Dover. Hydruntum retained this character until the Norman period, and as long as southern Italy was connected with the eastern empire. BRUNDUSIUM was distinguished for its excellent harbour, which was valued the more because there was not a single good harbour between Brundusium and Ancona. It consisted of several branches, and could admit more ships than ever sailed in those seas. For this reason the Romans secured the possession of that town as early as possible, and established a Latin colony there. At present the harbour is partly filled up with mud. ANCIENT OENOTRIA. The Oenotrians in southern Italy are the real Itali. I shall speak of them first, and after having put them in their right light, I shall pass on to the Greek towns on the the coasts, which are commonly called Magna Graecia. Oenotria is the same as Italia in the limited sense of the name. You remember the varying circumstances, according to which the name Italia was given to a larger or smaller extent of country, and that in its widest sense it embraced the country as far as the Tiber and mount Garganus. In consequence of the extension of other nations, the Itali were afterwards confined to the southern country, and thereby became so compact, that they were wholly governed by the Greek colonies on the coast, and hence when, e.g., a person went from Sybaris to Posidonia, or from Croton to Terina, he had to pass, if not through a country altogether peopled by Greeks, at least through one governed by Greek towns. Oenotria thus became Italy proper; but it cannot be said, on the other hand, that the name Italia was transferred from that small district to the whole of the peninsula. If we were confined to the Roman writers alone, and if we had no information from Greek authors, especially Dionysius and Strabo, we should be in utter ignorance about the Oenotrians, and we should scarcely have any idea of Italian archaeology. From this we may infer how much more information must be lost about more distant countries, which had no literature of their own. The Lucanians, whom we afterwards find spread over the whole of that country, occupied, at the period of the Persian wars, only the north-eastern portion of Lucania, while all the rest of the country afterwards called Lucania, and the whole of Bruttium, were inhabited by Oenotrians. On the coast, Greek colonies were established, which ruled over them as sovereigns, so that the greater part of the Oenotrians were reduced to a state of servitude, but another portion of them was never subdued. These Oenotrians were Pelasgians or Siceli of the same stock as the Epirots, as is stated by the scholiast on the Odyssey, on the authority of the Macedonian Mnaseas, the disciple of Aristarchus.