BRUTIAN COSENZA

THE CONQUEST OF THE BRETICA FORTRESS
Location: Piazza dei Valdesi

Led by a young woman, the Bruttians storm the Bretica fortress.
In ancient times, the Bruttians (Italian Bruzi), were servant-shepherds of the Lucanians (Greeks who had settled in Southern Italy). In 356 B.C they rebelled, and, led by a young Bruttian woman, attacked the Bretica fortress at the base of the Pancrazio hill (the St. Lucia district in modern Cosenza).
The fortress was defended by 600 Africans in the employ of Dionysius II of Syracuse, an ally of the Lucanians. After a bloody battle, peace was pronounced, known as the peace of "the Bruttian woman" in honour of the Bruttians' leader.

THE FEDERAL COUNCIL ASSEMBLY
Location: Gradoni per Vico S. Lucia, 46

The Lucumones of the twelve tribes meet at a table in the Temple. Around them on the walls are their twelve respective deities.
The federal council met in the Temple in Consentia, now "Caput Brutiorum" (Capital of the Bruttians). Composed of the twelve Lucumones (leaders of the confederate cities), it met under the gaze of the twelve deities of Consentia, which represented their twelve cities.
The city of Consentia was founded at the top of the Pancrazio hill, named after the "consensus" agreed by the twelve Bruttian tribes, and by those Lucanians who stood by the "Magna Brutiorum".

THE WARS AGAINST ROME
Location: Via S. Lucia

The Battle of Maleventum, where the Roman attack was led by a herd of pigs that terrified Pyrrhus' elephants, allowing the legionnaires to capture some of them and easily overwhelm his troops.
In less than 80 years as free men, the Bruttians had organized themselves into a strong Federal Government. Thus they became a great local power, making significant territorial conquests, both north and south of Cosenza's province, which was their centre of operations. But now Rome was at its borders. This superpower of classical antiquity couldn't tolerate these indomitable, fierce warriors - tough as no others, inflexible and with unexpected resources - refusing to accept their supremacy. Three times the Bruttians rebelled against Roman power to maintain or regain their freedom. And three times they were defeated.
On the first occasion Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, fought against Rome on Italian soil. He won the Battle of Heraclea (280 B.C.); but in 275 B.C. at the decisive Battle of Maleventum (renamed Benevento byt the Romans), he was defeated irrevocably.

FINAL SURRENDER TO THE ROMANS
Location: Vico S. Lucia

A glimpse of the battle of Cane, where Hannibal and his allies the Bruttians defeat the Romans.
In the Second Punic War, Consentia sided with Hannibal against Rome. But despite the victory of the Carthaginians in the battle of Cannae (216 B.C.), the Second Punic War marked the end of the Bruttians' growing power and their disappearance as a separate ethnic organization.
In 204 B.C., the Bruttians finally surrendered to the Roman Consul Gnaeus Servilius. Rome was not magnanimous in victory. It could not understand the motivations of Bruttians. Rome removed the title of city state (Caput Brettiorum) from Cosenza, dissolved the Bruttian confederation and confiscated almost all their territory, transforming it into a Roman colony. Overnight, its population became servants of Rome- subjects without rights, whose previous culture was destroyed.

SPARTACUS' REVOLT
Location: Via S.Lucia

Along the Appian Way, the Romans crucified the slaves and the Bruttians who had followed Spartacus, and fought side-by-side against Rome. Under a long line of crosses, disappearing into infinity there is, on guard, a single Roman soldier with a lance.
In 73 B.C. the Roman slave Spartacus marched against Rome, triggering a civil war; and the Bruttians joined the revolt in their third and final attempt to regain freedom and independence.
But In 71 B.C. Spartacus was defeated. The majority of slaves were killed, while six thousand were taken prisoner and crucified along the Appian Way between Capua and Rome. Among these were many Bruttians.