the ancient name of Italy, from its most ancient inhabitants the Aufones, (Virgil, Servius).

AUSONEUM mare (anc. geog.), a part of the Ionian sea, extending southwards from the promontory Japygium to Sicily, which it washes on the east, as it does the Brutii and Magna Graecia on the south and east. It is separated from the Tuscan sea by the strait of Messina.