Lucanica was a rustic pork sausage in Ancient Roman cuisine.
Apicius documents it as a spicy, smoked beef or pork sausage originally from Lucania; according to Cicero and Martial, it was brought by Roman troops or slaves from Lucania.
It has given its name to a variety of sausages (fresh, cured, and smoked) in Mediterranean cuisine and its colonial offshoots, including:
Italian luganega or lucanica
Portuguese and Brazilian linguiça
Bulgarian lukanka or loukanka
Macedonian (Western dialects) lukanec/луканец or lukanci/луканци
Albanian (Arbëresh community in Italy) likëngë or lekëngë, also llukanik in Albania. Greek loukaniko, a fresh sausage usually flavored with orange peel Spanish, Latin American, and Philippine longaniza, a name which covers both fresh and cured sausages Arabic laqāniq, naqāniq, or maqāniq, made of mutton and some semolina Modern Hebrew naqniq (נקניק), an umbrella term for "sausage". Basque lukainka Croatian luganiga, flavored with cinnamon
Today, lucanica sausage is identified as Lucanica di Picerno, produced in Basilicata (whose territory was part of the ancient Lucania).