bruttiani

BRUTTIA´NIslaves whose duty it was to wait on the Roman magistrates. They are said to have been originally taken from among the Bruttians, because this people continued from first to last faithful to Hannibal (P. Diac. s. v. Bruttiani; Gell. 10.3.19); and Strabo (v. extr.) says the same of the Lucanians and Picentes. But Niebuhr (Hist. of Rome, vol. iii. note 944) is disposed to think that these servants bore this name long before, since both Strabo (6.2.4) and Diodorus (Diod. 16.15) state that this word signified revolted slaves in the Lucanian language. (Mom. Röm. Staatsr. 1.260.)