Lucania was an ancient district of southern Italy, extending from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Gulf of Taranto. To the north it adjoined Campania, Samnium and Apulia, and to the south it was separated by a narrow isthmus from the district of Bruttium. It thus comprised almost all the modern region of the Basilicata, with the greater part of the province of Salerno (the so-called Cilento) and a portion of that of Cosenza. The precise limits were the river Silarus on the north-west, which separated it from Campania, and the Bradanus, which flows into the Gulf of Tarentum, on the north-east; while the two little rivers Laus and Crathis, flowing from the ridge of theApennines to the sea on the west and east, marked the limits of the district on the side of the Bruttii.
