The Bruttians (alternative spelling, Brettii) () were an ancient Italic people. They inhabited the southern extremity of Italy, from the frontiers of Lucania to the Sicilian Straits and the promontory of Leucopetra. This roughly corresponds to the modern region of Calabria. Occupying the mountains and hills of Calabria, they were the southernmost branch of the Osco-Umbrian Italic tribes, and were ultimately descended from the Samnites through the process of Ver Sacrum. They are remembered as pillagers and conquerors of the Calabrian-Greek poleis and brave rebels of the Romans who never fully opposed at its military campaign. Name The name is Indo-European. It is similar to Illyrian ethnonym Brentii from *brentos (deer). A close variant is attested in the name of the Bruttii in ancient Greek () and the name of the community on its coinage (ΒΡΕΤΤΙΩΝ, "of the Brettioi"). Before gaining their independence from the Lucanians, the Bruttii belonged to the lower social strata of Lucanian territory. After 356 BCE when the Bruttii became independent , for the Lucanians and the ancient sources of the period the name of the Bruttii became synonyms with "rebels" and "fugitive slaves". History Diodorus Siculus (1st century BC) writes that the Bruttii were formed around the year 356 BC, when people of varied origins assembled in Lucania and formed this new community. These groups who are described as mostly fugitive slaves by Diodorus were considered to be "experts in affairs of war". Strabo describes the Bruttii as slave-shepherds of the Lucani who revolted. In these stories, because of their social conditions the name of the Bruttii acquired the meaning of "rebels" or "fugitive slaves". Justin wrote that the Bruttian community was formed when 500 youths from the Lucani joined the shepherds who lived in the forests and together fought against Italiote mercenaries. In this literary construction, they were helped by a woman named Bruttia and the new community according to the myth took as its name that of Bruttia. These myths which despite their different narratives place the foundation of the Bruttian community in the 4th century BC, actually postdate by several centuries the first archaeological-historical piece of evidence for the existence of the ethnonym of the Bruttii. The inscription "Bruties esum" (I am of Brutius) has been found on pottery in southern Campania already in the mid 6th century BCE. The Bruttii spoke a variant of Oscan and Illyrian settlement in older periods