Brindisi is an ancient city in the Italian region of Apulia, the capital of the province of Brindisi.There are several traditions concerning its founders; one of them claims that it was founded by the legendary hero Diomedes.
Brindisi was probably an Illyrian settlement predating the Roman expansion. The Latin name Brundisium, through the Greek Brentesion, is a corruption of the Messapian Brention meaning "deer's head" and probably refers to the shape of the natural harbor. As a Messapic center, Brindisi was in conflict with Taranto and in friendly relations with Thurii. In 267 BCE (245 BCE, according to other sources) it was conquered by the Romans. After the Punic Wars it became a major center of Roman naval power and maritime trade. In the Social War it received Roman citizenship, and was made a free port by Sulla. It suffered, however, from a siege conducted by Caesar in 49 BCE and was again attacked in 42 and 40 BCE.
The poet Pacuvius was born here about 220 BCE, and here the famous poet Virgil died in 19 BCE. Under the Romans, Brundisium - a large city in its day with some 100,000 inhabitants, was an active port, the chief point of embarkation for Greece and the East, via Dyrrachium or Corcyra. It was connected with Rome by the Via Appia and the Via Traiana. visit to Brindisi italy
