On the coat of arms of Ugento you can see Hercules (Jupiter's child ) holding in his left arm a skin of lion and a horn of plenty, while in his right hand he has got a cudgel; on the left there is Nike, the winged victory goddess crowning him. On the coat of arms you can also read a writing "OZAN" that is an abbreviation of "ozantini" that means "ugentini"; such writing can be seen on some coins of the II century B.C. . The origins of Ugento cannot be proved by documents but thanks to the recovery of menhirs, dolmens and Messapian Walls we are sure that this village was founded during the prehistoric age. There are two menhirs: one is situated at Gemini (a frazione of Ugento), the other one is at the Terenzano Farm. The dolmen (funeral monuments) were destroyed by some farmers who could not perceive their importance. As far as the Messapian Walls are concerned they represent a real proof of the Messapian people' settlement; they had a perimeter of around 5,000 meters and they were 6 meters tall. The Messapians were very highly-civilized and they could produce their coins by themselves. In 82 B.C. Ugento became a Roman Town Hall. From 409 to 545 ( when it was completely destroyed by the Goths), this place was invaded by the Visigoths, the Vandals, the Ostrogoths, the Alemannics and the Franks. In 842 it was destroyed again by the Saracens and around 1020 it was rebuilt by the Normans. In the XI century Pecicco of the Trebigne, a relative of the King of Dalmazia, became king ans in 1195 Ugento was incorporated into the Principality of Taranto and governed by several families (D' Aquinos, Orsini della Rattas, del Balzos) until 1537 when Barbarossa destroyed the town again. Then it was ruled by some feudal vassals(Pandones, Vaaz De Andata, D'Amore) until 1806 when the feudal system was suppressed. The most famous man of Ugento is Giuseppe Colosso who was born in 1745. He belonged to a noble family, he was deeply interested in the research of the origins of Ugento: he became a teacher of theology and wrote a lot of books such as "Discorsi sull' antichità di Ugento."