Messapian

There is a Messapian tomb, probably built hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus, and symbols carved in stone by the Knights Templar passing through on crusades to Jerusalem.

This year a major theft of Messapian archaeological remains in the village of Oria, between Taranto and Brindisi, was not even publically announced by the local administration until months after it occurred.

(from the Messapian) (Russell 1997: 10) Much might be said of this poem (the title of which abbreviates the Italian epitaffio): of the fun it has with the meaning of the word translation, of its ironic relevance to Russell himself, (who was living in Italy, self-exiled from his native land at the time of its composition, in a converted mill outside Pian di Sco in Tuscany (which did, indeed, have a "tolerable bean-patch").

And further: Rum mlnz, mlndzu 'foal (up to one year old)', Alb (Tosk) mes, m'ezi, (Gheg) maz 'foal (up to two-three years old)', also mezat 'bullock', Messap Menzanas 'epithet of Jupiter' (to whom the Messapians sacrificed horses), Lat mannus 'small horse' (considered from a Paleobalkanic source in Rum, Alb and Lat), Grm (Bavarian) manz, menz 'sterilis uacca', minzekalb 'iuvenca', Itl manzo 'bullock', manza 'young cow, sterile cow' [= 'cow that hasn't given birth'], (in Basque mando 'mule'), Mir menn 'kid, young of an animal', MWels myn 'young goat, kid', usually derived from the IE stem *mend-, *mond- 'to suck, to feed young animals' (IEW 729).