Chapter 7 - The Mamertini in Messina

Summary

The Mamertini are unusual in the ancient world, if not unique, as a group of mercenaries for whom we have both a record in ancient authors of their movements and behaviour (to some extent, and with some variation between authors), and a small number of inscriptions which can be attributed to them partly on linguistic grounds (being written in Oscan in an otherwise Greek-speaking milieu) and partly because some of them explicitly state that they have been erected on behalf of the τωϝτο μαμερτινο ‘the Mamertine people’.