), were an ancient tribe of central Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. They are thought to have lived around Interamnia (or Interamna), which became modern Teramo

Teramo

Teramo is a city and comune in the central Italian region of Abruzzo, the capital of the province of Teramo.The city, from Rome, is situated between the highest mountains of the Apennines and the Adriatic coast...

, and to have given their name to the Abruzzo

Abruzzo

Abruzzo is a region in Italy, its western border lying less than due east of Rome. Abruzzo borders the region of Marche to the north, Lazio to the west and south-west, Molise to the south-east, and the Adriatic Sea to the east...

. The ancient accounts, however, are substantially confused, when it comes to more precise location and details.

Sources

We have no account of the origin of the Praetutii, or how they differed from the Picentes

Picentes

The Picentes or Picentini are Latin exonyms for the people who lived in Picenum in the northern Adriatic coastal plain of ancient Italy. The endonym, if any, and its language are not known for certain....

. The chief city of the Praetutii was Interamna, called for distinction's sake Interamna Praetutiana. They occupied a district of Picenum

Picenum

Picenum was a region of ancient Italy. The name is an exonym assigned by the Romans, who conquered and incorporated it into the Roman Republic. Picenum was the birthplace of such notables as Pompey the Great and his father Pompeius Strabo. It was situated in what is now Marche...

, bounded by the river Vomanus (modern Vomano

Vomano

The Vomano is a 76 km Italian river, which runs through Montorio al Vomano and Roseto degli Abruzzi in region of Abruzzo. It rises from Monte San Franco in Gran Sasso and enters the sea at Roseto degli Abruzzi....

) on the south and apparently by the stream called by Pliny

Pliny the Elder

Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...

 the Albula

Albula River (disambiguation)

Albula River may refer to one of the following.*Albula River, a river in Switzerland.*An old name of Tiber...

 on the north; but the Albula cannot be identified with certainty, and the text of Pliny may be corrupt as well as confused. He appears to place the Albula north of the Truentus (modern Tronto

Tronto

The Tronto is a 115 km-long Italian river that arises at Monte della Laghetta and ends in the Adriatic Sea at Porto d'Ascoli, San Benedetto del Tronto. Anciently the Truentus, it traverses the Lazio, Marche, and Abruzzo regions....

); but it is certain that the Praetutii did not extend as far to the north as the latter river, and it is probable that the stream now called the Salinello was their northern limit. The editors of the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition

Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition

The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition is a 29-volume reference work, an edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. It was developed during the encyclopaedia's transition from a British to an American publication. Some of its articles were written by the best-known scholars of the time...

, citing Pliny iii. 110, place the tribe's northern limit at the Tessinnus (another unidentified hydronym

Hydronym

A hydronym is a proper name of a body of water. Hydronymy is the study of hydronyms and of how bodies of water receive their names and how they are transmitted through history...

).

The Ager Praetutianus is mentioned by Livy

Livy

Titus Livius — known as Livy in English — was a Roman historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people. Ab Urbe Condita Libri, "Chapters from the Foundation of the City," covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome well before the traditional foundation in 753 BC...

 and Polybius, as well as by Pliny, as a well-known district, and Ptolemy even distinguishes it altogether from Picenum, in which, however, it was certainly generally comprised. But the name seems to have continued in general use, and became corrupted in the Middle Ages into Prutium and Aprutium, from whence the modern name of Abruzzo is generally thought to be derived.

Ptolemy also assigns to them the town of Beregra. And the editors of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, based on their interpretation of Pliny's text assign the towns of Castrum Novum and Truentus to the tribe. Pliny mentions the Ager Palmensis in close connection with the Praetutii; but this appears to have been only a small district, which was celebrated, as was the Praetutian region generally, for the excellence of its wines.