the term used by the indigenous peoples to designate themselves. The name Iapyges has also been compared to that of the Iapydes, an Illyrian tribe of northern Dalmatia.

Some ancient sources treat Iapygians and Messapians as synonymous, and several writers of the Roman period referred to them as Apuli in the north, Poediculi in the centre, and Sallentini or Calabri in the south. By the middle of the 3rd century,