An ancient Greek name for the people and region of central Italy, particularly what the Greeks called the Italian mainland.
From ancient Greek 'Ausonēs,' possibly from a pre-Greek Italic language. The Romans later called the region 'Ausonia,' relating it to the legendary king Auson.
The ancient Greeks had their own names for places they knew about—'Ausones' was their word for the Italian peninsula before Rome became the superpower, a reminder that history had other narrators before Roman writers took over the story.
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