Iron Age people of the heel of Italy (ancient Messapia, modern Salento), speaking a distinct Indo-European language related to Illyrian and leaving behind an epigraphic corpus in their own alphabet derived from Greek.
Conquered by the Roman Republic in 267–266 BCE following the fall of Tarentum (272 BCE), after which the Iapygian tribes including the Messapians were absorbed into Roman provincial society, with the Messapic language eventually going extinct.
Covers the indigenous peoples of southern Italy — including the Messapians — and their encounters with Magna Graecia and Rome.
Strabo describes Iapygia and the heel of Italy (Messapia/Calabria), a primary-source view of the Messapians' territory.