Salento is often quoted in epic poems such as the Odyssey and the Aeneid, and it is placed in the cradle of Western civilization. 

The collection of golden jewels in Taranto Municipal Museum, the proto-Corinthian vases and ceramics and the famous Messapian jars (trozzelle) that are in all museums of Salento, are reminders of Magna Grecia civilization. The rupestrian crypts keep ancient Greek codes.
Mycenean civilization had influenced the people living in the Salento peninsula before reaching Greece. The Messapian people, called Sallentinii by the Romans, were not of Greek origin since they probably came from Dalmatia (still a region of today’s Croatia), but they were highly civilized as Strabone and Plinio, the two great historians, say. Therefore they integrated with the local people who were Greek and also assimilated parts of their culture into their own, but were able to run an independent life in their fortified towns and ready to fight against common enemies.
Before the Romans took over Salento, people lived a prosperous life since their civilization was superior to any other Italic populations of that time. The Romans themselves after conquering Salento appreciated local sculptures, paintings and the poetry composed by Quintus Ennius and Virgil. The former, one of the greatest Roman poets, was born in the Messapian Rudiae, nowadays an important archeological site, few miles far from Lecce. The latter, Virgil, who sang of Aeneus and his heroic deeds, lived and died in Brindisi. 

After the dissolution of the Western Roman Empire, Salento was in turn under the Byzantine and Norman political dominions. The Swabian emperor Frederic II was particularly fond of Apulia and Salento which consequently grew in importance. After the Swabians, Salento underwent the domination of the Angevins and the Aragoneses. Under the Spanish domination, in 1480, Otranto was besieged by the Turks who knew that only a small Spanish garrison was on duty, and forced to surrender. The martyrdom of 800 defenders helped saving the Pope and Christianity in western Europe, since the Turks wanted to murder the Pope and join their fellow countrymen in Spain.

A long period of depression followed and the few local squires who owned large estates made the population live an extremely poor life and particularly the conditions of life of the rural population grew worse.

It was only in the years that followed World War II that the economic conditions improved and today Salento is growing up as one of the major tourist destinations in Italy.