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[2] First they took by siege the city Terina1 and plundered it completely; then, having taken Hipponium, Thurii, and many other cities,2 they formed a common government and were called Bruttians from the fact that most of them were slaves, for in the local dialect runaway slaves were called "bruttians."3

Such, then, was the origin4 of the people of the Bruttians in Italy.

1 A city on the west coast of Bruttian peninsula probably founded by Croton.

2 Sybaris on the Trais is mentioned in Book 12.22.1.

3 Perhaps Oscan. Yet other legends have Brettos (Stephanus of Byzantium, Βρέττος), son of Hercules and Valentia, as eponymous hero, and still others Brettia (Justin 23.1.12), as eponymous heroine. But the term Brettios is older than the date of this passage (see Aristoph. fr. 629 Kock).

4 See Justin 23.1.3-14; Strabo 6.1.4.

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