ccording to the Greek geographer Strabo, the city of Brindisi, a center of viticulture since antiquity that has lent its name to one of the most renowned wines of Apulia, was founded by a group of settlers from the Cretan capital of Knossos led by Theseus. The Cretans established new homes in the Salento, the southermost part of Apulia, in the 16th century BC.The city's coat of arms contains two columns and the head of a stag. The columns are meant to represent those erected by the Romans at the conclusion of the Via Appia. The road was the principal artery linking Rome with the only natural port on the Italian Adriatic coast. Because of that factor and the resulting traffic, Brindisi has been known since ancient times as the "port of the East."
The stag's head refers to the Messapian word brunda, meaning the head of a deer, from which the ancient name of the city, Brundisium, was derived. The name was chosen because it describes the shape of the harbor, which is unequalled in Italy. At Brindisi, the Apulian coast is indented by a wide, deep fjord the extends inland for a considerable distance. The fjord splits into two branches, resembling antlers. The city is located on the peninsula between the harbor's two arms.
However, according to popular legend, the city's name is not derived from Greek tradition but is attributable to a custom of Roman sailors preparing to embark for Greece or the Middle East. Before sailing, they would lift cups full of wine and toast each other's success. A toast in Italian is a" brindisi". It is a fact that the wines of Apulia were commonly found on the banquet tables of ancient Rome. In their writings, Tibullus, Pliny the Elder and Horace provide numerous details on the cultivation and vinification of grapes in the region. Pliny often refers to the wines of Canusium and Brundisium, while Horace praises them in his Merum Tarentinum. The term "merum" was used by the Romans to distinguish pure and full-bodied Apulian wines from the simple type or from that which did not have a mouth-filling flavor, which they called "vinum".
The word "merum" still exists, slightly altered to "mejre", in Apulian dialect. Without "mejre", the local wine, a meal is considered incomplete, insipid and unbalanced.
