Region
Apulia
Listen to the story
Apulia, the land of today's Puglia in south-eastern Italy, took its name from a single people living around the Gargano promontory, whose chief town was Teanum Apulum. After Rome completed its conquest in 317 BC, the name spread over the neighbouring Daunians and Peucetians too, and Augustus joined it with Calabria in his second region of Italy. The thin, porous limestone soil was short of water, yet Apulian horses and sheep were famous, the flocks wintering on the plain and driven into the mountains each spring. The Lombard historian Paul the Deacon even derived the name from 'perdition', because the sun scorched the green land.
Find Apulia on the interactive Roman map →
Auf Deutsch anhören · All place stories · More places in Italy