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50 miles. E. of this, and flowing from the Alps direct to the Adriatic, come in succession, the Medoacus or Brenta, the Plavis or Piave, the Tilavemptus (Tagliamento), and the Sontius (Isonzo), besides many smaller streams, which will be noticed under the article VENETIA.

Italy; but we have no specific account of its pro- | parallel with the greater river for a distance of above duction, and the fact that silver money was unknown to the ancient nations of Italy sufficiently shows that it was not found in any great quantity. The early coinage of Italy was of copper, or rather bronze; and this metal appears to have been extracted in large quantities, and applied to a variety of purposes by the Etruscans, from a very early period. The same people were the first to explore the iron mines of Ilva, which continued to be assiduously worked by the Romans; though the metal produced was thought inferior to that of Noricum. Of other minerals, cinnabar (minium) and calamine (cadmium) are noticed by Pliny. The white marble of Luna, also, was extensively quarried by the Romans, and seems to have been recognised as a superior material for sculpture to any of those derived from Greece.

Liguria, S. of the Apennines, has very few streams worthy of notice, the mountains here approaching so close to the coast as to leave but a short course for their waters. The most considerable are, the Varus (Var), which forms the western limit of the province; the Rutuba (Roja), flowing through the land of the Intemelii, and the Macra (Magra), which divides Liguria from Etruria.

The rivers of Central Italy, as already mentioned, all take their rise in the Apennines, or the mountain groups dependent upon them. The two most important of these are the Arnus (Arno) and Tiberis (Tevere). The Ausar (Serchio), which now pursues an independent course to the sea a few miles N. of the Arnus, was formerly a confluent of that river. Of the smaller streams of Etruria, which have their sources in the group of hills that separate the basin of the Arno from that of the Tiber, the most considerable are the Caecina (Cecina), the Umbro

IV. RIVERS, LAKES, AND MOUNTAINS. The configuration of Italy is unfavourable to the formation of great rivers. The Padus is the only stream which deserves to rank among the principal rivers of Europe: even the Arnus and the Tiber, celebrated as are their names in history, being inferior in magnitude to many of the secondary streams, which are mere tributaries of the Rhine, the Rhone,(Ombrone), and the Arminia (Fiora). The great or the Danube. In the north of Italy, indeed, the rivers which flow from the perpetual snows of the Alps are furnished with a copious and constant supply of water; but the greater part of those which have their sources in the Apennines, though large and formidable streams when swollen by heavy rains or the snows of winter, dwindle into insignificance at other times, and present but scanty streams of water winding through broad beds covered with stones and shingle. It is only by comparison with Greece that Italy (with the exception of Cisalpine Gaul) could be praised for its abundance of navigable rivers.

The PADUS, or Po, is by far the most important river of Italy, flowing from W. to E. through the very midst of the great basin or trough of Northern Italy, and receiving, in consequence, from both sides, all the waters from the southern declivities of the Alps, as well as from the northern slopes of the Apennines. Hence, though its course does not exceed 380 geog. miles in length, and the direct distance from its sources in the Mons Vesulus (Mte. Viso) to its mouth in the Adriatic is only 230 miles, the body of water which it brings down to the sea is very large. Its principal tributaries are as follows, beginning with those on the N. bank, and proceeding from W. to E. :-(1) the Duria Minor (Doria Riparia), which joins the Po near Turin Augusta Taurinorum; (2) the Stura (Stura); (3) the Orgus (Orco), (4) the Duria Major, or Dora Baltea; (5) the Sessites (Sesia); (6) the Ticinus (Ticino); (7) the Lambrus (Lambro); (8) the Addua (Adda); (9) the Ollius (Oglio); (10) the Mincius (Mincio). Equally numerous, though less important in volume and magnitude, are its tributaries from the S. side, the chief of which are:-(1) the Tanarus (Tanaro), flowing from the Maritime Alps, and much the most considerable of the southern feeders of the Po; (2) the Trebia (Trebbia); (3) the Tarus (Taro); (4) the Incius (Enza); (5) the Gabellus (Secchia); (6) the Scultenna (Panaro); (7) the Renus (Reno); (8) the Vatrenus (Santerno). (Plin. iii. 16. s. 20.) The first river which, descending from the Alps, does not join the Padus, is the Athesis or Adige, which in the lower part of its course flows nearly

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valley of the Tiber, which has a general southerly direction, from its sources in the Apennines on the confines of Etruria and Umbria to its mouth at Ostia, a distance in a direct line of 140 geog. miles, is the most important physical feature of Central Italy. That river receives in its course many tributary streams, but the only ones which are important in a geographical point of view are the CLANIS, the NAR, and the ANIO. Of these the Nar brings with it the waters of the Velinus, a stream at least as considerable as its own.

South of the Tiber are the LIRIS (Garigliano or Liri), which has its sources in the central Apennines near the lake Fucinus; and the VULTURNUS (Volturno), which brings with it the collected waters of almost the whole of Samnium, receiving near Beneventum the tributary streams of the Calor (Calore), the Sabatus (Sabbato), and the Tamarus (Tamaro). Both of these rivers flow through the plain of Campania to the sea: south of that province, and separating it from Lucania, is the SILARUS (Sele), which, with its tributaries the Calor (Calore) and Tanager (Negro), drains the western valleys of the Lucanian Apennines. This is the last river of any magnitude that flows to the western coast of Italy: further to the S. the Apennines approach so near to the shore that the streams which descend from them to the sea are mere mountain torrents of trifling length and size. One of the most considerable of them is the Laüs (Lao), which forms the limit between Lucania and Bruttium. The other minor streams of those two provinces are enumerated under their respective articles.

Returning now to the eastern or Adriatic coast of Italy, we find, as already noticed, a large number of streams, descending from the Apennines to the sea, but few of them of any great magnitude, though those which have their sources in the highest parts of the range are formidable torrents at particular seasons of the year. Beginning from the frontiers of Cisalpine Gaul, and proceeding from N. to S., the most important of these rivers are: (1) the Ariminus (Marecchia); (2) the Crustumius (Conca); (3) the Pisaurus (Foglia); (4) the Metaurus (Metauro);

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(5) the Aesis (Esino); (6) the Potentia (Potenza); (7) the Flusor (Chienti); (8) the Truentus (Tronto); (9) the Vomanus (Vomano); (10) the Aternus (Aterno or Pescara); (11) the Sagrus (Sangro); (12) the Trinius (Trigno); (13) the Tifernus (Biferno); (14) the Frento (Fortore); (15) the Cerbalus (Cervaro); (16) the Aufidus (Ofanto), which has much the longest course of all the rivers falling into the Adriatic.

Beyond this, not a single stream worthy of notice flows to the Adriatic; those which have their sources in the central Apennines of Lucania all descending towards the Tarentine gulf; these are, the Bradanas (Bradano), the Casuentus (Basiento), the Aciris (Agri), and the Siris (Sinno). The only rivers of Bruttium worthy of mention are the Crathis (Crati) and the Neaethus (Neto).

(The minor streams and those noticed in history, but of no geographical importance, are enumerated in the descriptions of the several provinces.)

ITALIA.

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cipal summits of the latter range have been already noticed under the article APENNINUS. The few outlying or detached suminits, which do not properly be long to the Apennines are :-(1) the Monte Amiata or Monte di Santa Fiora, in the heart of Etruria, which rises to a height of 5794 feet above the sea; (2) the MONS CIMINUS, a volcanic group of very inferior elevation; (3) the MONS ALBANUS, rising Campania, attaining between 3000 and 4000 feet; to above 3000 feet; (4) the MONS VESUVIUS, in (5) the MONS VULTUR, on the opposite side of the Apennines, which measures 4433 feet; and (6) the MONS GARGANUS, an isolated mass, but geologically connected with the Apennines, while all the preceding are of volcanic origin, and therefore geologically, as well as geographically, distinct from the neighbouring Apennines.

promontories of the Mons Argentarius (Monte ArTo these may be added the two isolated mountain (Monte Circello) on that of Latium,- both of them gentaro) on the coast of Etruria, and Mons Circeius rising like rocky islands, joined to the mainland only by low strips of alluvial soil.

The Italian lakes may be considered as readily arranging themselves into three groups:-1. The lakes of Northern Italy, which are on a far larger scale than any of the others, are all basins formed by the rivers which descend from the high Alps, and the waters of which are arrested just at their exit IV. ETHNOGRAPHY OF ANCIENT ITALY. from the mountains. Hence they are, as it were, different races which peopled the Italian peninsula The inquiry into the origin and affinities of the valleys filled with water, and are of elongated form and before it fell altogether under the dominion of Rome, considerable depth; while their superfluous waters and the national relations of the different tribes with are carried off in deep and copious streams, which which the rising republic came successively into conbecome some of the principal feeders of the Po. tact, is a problem which has more or less attracted Such are the Lacus Verbanns (Lago Maggiore), the attention of scholars ever since the revival of formed by the Ticinus; the Lacus Larius (Lago di letters. But it is especially of late years that the Como), by the Addua; the Lacus Sebinus (Lago impulse given to comparative philology, combined d'Iseo), by the Ollius; and the Lacus Benacus (Lago with the spirit of historical criticism, has directed di Garda), by the Mincius. To these Pliny adds their researches to this subject. Yet, after all that the Lacus Eupilis, from which flows the Lamber or Lambro, a very trifling sheet of water (Plin. iii. 19. the present day, it must be admitted that it is still has been written on it, from the time of Niebuhr to s. 23); while neither he, nor any other ancient enveloped in great obscurity. The scantiness of the writer, mentions the Lago di Lugano, situated between the Lake of Como and Lago Maggiore, these different nations; the various and contradictory monuments that remain to us of the languages of though it is inferior in magnitude only to the three statements of ancient authors concerning them; and great lakes. It is first mentioned by Gregory of the uncertainty, even with regard to the most apTours in the 6th century, under the name of Cere-parently authentic of these statements, on what sius Lacus, an appellation probably ancient, though not now found in any earlier author. 2. The lakes of Central Italy are, with few exceptions, of volcanic origin, and occupy the craters of long extinct volHence they are mostly of circular or oval form, of no great extent, and, not being fed by perennial streams, either require no natural outlet, or have their surplus waters carried off by very inconsiderable streams. The largest of these volcanic lakes is the Lacus Vulsiniensis, or Lago di Bolsena, in Southern Etruria, a basin of about 30 miles in circumference. Of similar character and origin are, the Lacus Sabatinus (Lago di Bracciano) and Lacus Ciminus (Lago di Vico), in the same district; the Lacus Albanus (Lago d'Albano) and Lacus Nemorensis (Lago di Nemi), in Latium: and the Lake Avernus in Campania. differing from the preceding are the two most con3. Wholly siderable lakes in this portion of Italy, the Lacus Trasimenus (Lago di Perugia) and Lacus Fucinus (Lago Fucino or Lago di Celano); both of which are basins surrounded by hills or mountains, leaving no natural outlet for their waters, but wholly unconnected with volcanic agency.

canoes.

The mountains of Italy belong almost exclusively either to the great chain of the Alps, which bounds it on the N., or to that of the Apennines. The prin

authority they were really founded; combine to embarrass our inquiries, and lead us to mistrust our conclusions. It will be impossible, within the limits of an article like the present, to enter fully into the discussion of these topics, or examine the arguments that have been brought forward by different writers upon the subject. All that can be attempted is to give such a summary view of the most probable results, as will assist the student in forming a connected idea of the whole subject, and enable him to follow with advantage the researches of other writers. Many of the particular points here briefly referred to will be more fully investigated in the several articles of the different regions and races to which they relate.

Leaving out of view for the present the inhabitants
of Northern Italy, the Gauls, Ligurians, and Veneti,
under five heads:-(1) the Pelasgians; (2) the Os-
the different nations of the peninsula may be grouped
cans; (3) the Sabellians; (4) the Umbrians; (5) the
Etruscans.

ascribing a Pelasgic origin to many of the most
1. PELASGIANS.-All ancient writers concur in
doubt that a large part of the population of the
ancient tribes of Italy, and there seems no reason to
peninsula was really of Pelasgic race, that is to say,
that it belonged to the same great nation or family

are

which formed the original population of Greece, as well as that of Epirus and Macedonia, and of a part at least of Thrace and Asia Minor. The statements and arguments upon which this inference is based more fully discussed under the article PELASGI. It may here suffice to say that the general fact is put forward prominently by Dionysius and Strabo, and has been generally adopted by modern writers from Niebuhr downwards. The Pelasgian population of Italy appears in historical times principally, and in its unmixed form solely, in the southern part of the peninsula. But it is not improbable that it had, as was reported by traditions still current in the days of the earliest historians, at one time extended much more widely, and that the Pelasgian tribes had been gradually pressed towards the south by the successively advancing waves of population, which appear under the name of the Oscans or Ausonians, and the Sabellians. At the time when the first Greek colonies were established in Southern Italy, the whole of the country subsequently known as Lucania and Bruttium was occupied by a people whom the Greeks called OENOTRIANS (Olvaτpoi), and who are generally represented as a Pelasgic race. Indeed we learn that the colonists themselves continued to call this people, whom they had reduced to a state of serfdom, Pelasgi. (Steph. B. s. v. Xios.) We find, however, traces of the tradition that this part of Italy was at one time peopled by a tribe called SICULI, who are represented as passing over from thence into the island to which they gave the name of Sicily, and where alone they are found in historical times. [SICILIA.] The name of these Siculi is found also in connection with the earliest population of Latium [LATIUM]: both there and in Oenotria they are represented by some authorities as a branch of the Pelasgic race, while others regard them as a distinct people. In the latter case we have no clue whatever to their origin or national affinities.

very name of Tyrrhenians, universally given by the Greeks to the inhabitants of Etruria, appears indissolubly connected with that of Pelasgians; and the evidence of language affords some curious and interesting facts in corroboration of the same view. (Donaldson, Varronianus, 2d edit. pp. 166-170; Lepsius, Tyrrhen. Pelasger, pp. 40-43.)

If the Pelasgic element was thus prevalent in Southern Etruria, it might naturally be expected that its existence would be traceable in Latium also; and accordingly we find abundant evidence that one of the component ingredients in the population of Latium was of Pelasgic extraction, though this did not subsist within the historical period in a separate form, but was already indissolubly blended with the other elements of the Latin nationality. [LATIUM.] The evidence of the Latin language, as pointed out by Niebuhr, in itself indicates the combination of a Greek or Pelasgic race with one of a different origin, and closely akin to the other nations which we find predominant in Central Italy, the Umbrians, Oscans, and Sabines.

There seems to be also sufficient proof that a Pelasgic or Tyrrhenian population was at an early period settled along the coasts of Campania, and was probably at one time conterminous and connected with that of Lucania, or Oenotria; but the notices of these Tyrrhenian settlements are rendered obscure and confused by the circumstance that the Greeks applied the same name of Tyrrhenians to the Etruscans, who subsequently made themselves masters for some time of the whole of this country. [CAMPANIA.]

The notices of any Pelasgic population in the interior of Central Italy are so few and vague as to be scarcely worthy of investigation; but the traditions collected by Dionysius from the early Greek historians distinctly represent them as having been at one time settled in Northern Italy, and especially point to Spina on the Adriatic as a Pelasgic city. (Dionys. i. 17-21; Strab. v. p. 214.) Nevertheless it hardly appears probable that this Pelasgic race formed a permanent part of the population of those regions. The traditions in question are more fully investigated under the article PELASGI. There is some evidence also, though very vague and indefinite, of the existence of a Pelasgic population on the coast of the Adriatic, especially on the shores of Picenum. (These notices are collected by Niebuhr, vol. i. pp. 49, 50, and are discussed under PICENUM.)

Next to the Oenotrians come the Messapians or Iapygians, who are represented by the Greek legends and traditions as of Pelasgic or Greek descent: and there seem reasonable grounds for assuming that the conclusion was correct, though no value can be attached to the mythical legends connected with it by the logographers and early Greek historians. The tribes to whom a Pelasgic origin is thus assigned are, the Messapians and Salentines, in the Iapygian peninsula; and the Pencetians and Daunians, in the country called by the Romans Apulia. A strong confirmation of the inference derived in this case from 2. OSCANS. At a very early period, and cerother authorities is found in the traces still re-tainly before the commencement of historical record, maining of the Messapian dialect, which appears to have borne a close affinity to Greek, and to have differed from it only in much the same degree as the Macedonian and other cognate dialects. (Mommsen, Unter Italische Dialekten, pp. 41-98.)

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a considerable portion of Central Italy appears to have been in the possession of a people who were called by the Greeks Opicans, and by the Latins Oscans, and whom we are led to identify also with the Ausonians [AUSONES] of the Greeks, and the It is far more difficult to trace with any security Auruncans of Roman writers. From them was the Pelasgic population of Central Italy, where it derived the name of Opicia or Opica, which appears appears to have been very early blended with other to have been the usual appellation, in the days both national elements, and did not anywhere subsist in of Thucydides and Aristotle, for the central portion an unmingled form within the period of historical of the peninsula, or the country north of what was record. But various as have been the theories and then called Italy. (Thuc. vi. 4; Arist. Pol. vii. 10.) suggestions with regard to the population of Etruria, All the earliest authorities concur in representing there seems to be good ground for assuming that the Opicans as the earliest inhabitants of Campania, one important element, both of the people and lan- and they were still in possession of that fertile disguage, was Pelasgic, and that this element was pre-trict when the Greek colonies were planted there. dominant in the southern part of Etruria, while it was more feeble, and had been comparatively effaced in the more northern districts. [ETRURIA.] The

(Strab. v. p. 242.) We find also statements, which have every character of authenticity, that this same people then occupied the mountainous region after.

wards called Samnium, until they were expelled, or rather subdued, by the Sabine colonists, who assnined the name of Samnites. (ld. v. p. 250.) [SAMNIUM.] Whether they were more widely extended we have no positive evidence; but there seems a strong presumption that they had already spread themselves through the neighbouring districts of Italy. Thus the Hirpini, who are represented as a Samnite or Sabellian colony, in all probability found an Oscan population established in that country, as did the Samnites proper in the more northern province. There are also strong arguments for regarding the Volscians as of Oscan race, as well as their neighbours and inseparable allies the Aequians. (Niebuhr, vol. i. pp. 70-73; Donaldson, Varronianus, pp. 4, 5.) It was probably also an Oscan tribe that was settled in the highlands of the Apennines about Reate, and which from thence descended into the plains of Latium, and constituted one important element of the Latin nation. [LATIUM.] It is certain that, if that people was, as already mentioned, in part of Pelasgic origin, it contained also a very strong admixture of a non-Pelasgic race; and the analogy of language leads us to derive this latter element from the Oscan. (Donaldson, Z.c.) Indeed the extant monuments of the Oscan language are sufficient to prove that it bore a very close relation to the oldest form of the Latin; and Niebuhr justly remarks, that, had a single book in the Oscan language been preserved, we should have had little difficulty in deciphering it. (Niebuhr, vol. i. p. 68.) It is difficult to determine the precise relation which this primitive Oscan race bore to the Sabines or Sabellians. The latter are represented as conquerors, making themselves masters of the countries previously occupied by the Oscans; but, both in Samnium and Campania, we know that the language spoken in historical times, and even long after the Roman conquest, was still called Oscan; and we even find the Samnites carrying the same language with them, as they gradually extended their conquests, into the furthest recesses of Bruttium. (Fest. 8. v. Bilingues Brutates, p. 35.) There seems little doubt that the Samnite conquerors were a comparatively small body of warriors, who readily adopted the language of the people whom they subdued, like the Normans in France, and the Lombards in Northern Italy. (Niebuhr, vol. i. p. 67.) But, at the same time, there are strong reasons for supposing that the language of the Sabines themselves, and therefore that of the conquering Sabellian race, was not radically distinct from that of the Oscans, but that they were in fact cognate dialects, and that the two nations were members of the same family or race. The questions concerning the Oscan language, so far as it is known to us from existing monuments, are more fully adverted to under the article Osci*; but it must be borne in mind that all such monuments are of a comparatively late period, and represent only the Sabello-Oscan, or the language spoken by the combined people, long after the two races had been blended into one; and that we are almost wholly without the means of distinguishing what portion was derived from the one source or the

other.

See also Mommsen, Oskische Studien, 8vo. Berlin, 1845, and Nachträge, Berl. 1846, and his Unter Italischen Dialekte, Leipzig, 1850, pp. 99316; Klenze, Philologische Abhandlungen, 8vo. Berlin, 1839.

3. The SABELLIANS.-This name, which is sometimes used by ancient writers as synonymous with that of the Sabines, sometimes to designate the Samnites in particular (Plin. iii. 12. s. 17; Virgil, Georg. ii. 167; Hor. Sat. i. 9. 29, ii. 1. 36: Heindorf. ad loc.), is commonly adopted by modern historians as a general appellation, including the Sabines and all those races or tribes which, according to the distinct tradition of antiquity, derived their origin from them. These traditions are of a very different character from most of those transmitted to us, and have apparently every claim to be received as historical. And though we have no means of fixing the date of the migrations to which they refer, it seems certain that these cannot be carried back to a very remote age; but that the Sabellian races had not very long been established in the extensive regions of Central Italy, where we find them in the historical period. Their extension still further to the S. belongs distinctly to the historical age, and did not take place till long after the establishment of the Greek colonies in Southern Italy.

The Sabines, properly so called, had their original abodes, according to Cato (ap. Dionys. ii. 49), in the lofty ranges of the central Apennines and the upland valleys about Amiternum. It was from thence that, descending towards the western sea, they first began to press upon the Aborigines, an Oscan race, whom they expelled from the valleys about Reate, and thus gradually extended themselves into the country which they inhabited under the Romans, and which still preserves its ancient name of La Sabina. But, while the nation itself had thus shifted its quarters nearer to the Tyrrhenian Sea, it had sent out at different periods colonies or bodies of emigrants, which had established themselves to the E. and S. of their original abodes. Of these, the most powerful and celebrated were the Samnites (Zavvîrai), a people who are universally represented by ancient historians as descended from the Sabines (Strab. v. p. 250; Fest. v. Samnites; Varr. L. L. vii. § 29); and this tradition, in itself sufficiently trustworthy, derives the strongest confirmation from the fact already noticed, that the Romans applied the name of Sabelli (obviously only another form of Sabini) to both nations indiscriminately. It is even probable that the Samnites called themselves Sabini, or Savini, for the Oscan name "Safinim" is found on coins struck during the Social War, which in all probability belong to the Samnites, and certainly not to the Sabines proper. Equally distinct and uniform are the testimonies to the Sabine origin of the Piceni or Picentes (Plin. iii. 13. s. 18; Strab. v. p. 240), who are found in historical times in possession of the fertile district of Picenum, extending from the central chain of the Apennines to the Adriatic. The Peligni also, as we learn from the evidence of their native poet (Ovid, Fast. iii. 95), claimed to be of Sabine descent; and the same may fairly be assumed with regard to the Vestini, a tribe whom we find in historical times occupying the very valleys which are represented as the original abodes of the Sabines. We know nothing historically of the origin of this people, any more than of their neighbours the Marrucini; but we find them both associated so frequently with the Peligni and the Marsi, that it is probable the four constituted a common league or confederation, and this in itself raises a presumption that they were kindred races. Cato already remarked, and without doubt correctly, that the name of the Marrucini was directly derived from that of

cient authors as being at once Sabine and Oscan; and Varro (himself a native of Reate) bears distinct testimony to a connection between the two. (Varr. L. L. vii. § 28, ed. Müller.) On the other hand, there are evidences that the Sabine language had considerable affinity with the Umbrian (Donaldson, Varron. p. 8); and this was probably the reason why Zenodotus of Troezen (ap. Dionys. ii. 49) derived the Sabines from an Umbrian stock. But, in fact, the Umbrian and Oscan languages were themselves by no means so distinct as to exclude the supposition that the Sabine dialect may have been intermediate between the two, and have partaken largely of the characters of both.

4. UMBRIANS.-The general tradition of antiquity appears to have fixed upon the Umbrians as the most ancient of all the races inhabiting the Italian peninsula. (Plin. iii. 14. s. 19; Flor. i. 17; Dionys. i. 19.) We are expressly told that at the earliest period of which any memory was preserved, they occupied not only the district where we find them in historical times, but the greater part of Etruria also; while, across the Apennines, they held the fertile plains (subsequently wrested from them by the Etruscans and the Gauls) from the neighbourhood of Ravenna to that of Ancona, and appa

the Marsi (Cato, ap. Priscian. ix. 9); and there | can be no doubt that the same relation subsisted between the two nations: but we are wholly in the dark as to the origin of the Marsi themselves. Several circumstances, however, combine to render it probable that they were closely connected with the Sabines, but whether as a distinct offset from that people, or that the two proceeded from one common stock, we have no means of determining. [MARSI.] The Frentani, on the other hand, are generally represented as a Samnite race; indeed, both they and the Hirpini were so closely connected with the Samnites, that they are often considered as forming only a part of that people, though at other times they figure as independent and separate nations. But the traditions with regard to the establishment of the Hirpini and the origin of their name [HIRPINI], seem to indicate that they were the result of a separate migration, subsequent to that of the body of the Samnites. South of the Hirpini, again, the Lucanians are universally described as a Samnite colony, or rather a branch of the Samnites, who extended their conquering arms over the greater part of the country called by the Greeks Oenotria, and thus came into direct collision with the Greek colonies on the southern coasts of Italy. [MAGNA GRAECIA.] At the height of their power the Lu-rently a large part of Picenum also. Thus, at this canians even made themselves masters of the Bruttian peninsula; and the subsequent revolt of the Bruttii did not clear that country of these Sabellian invaders, the Bruttian people being apparently a mixed population, made up of the Lucanian conquerors and their Oenotrian serfs. [BRUTTII] While the Samnites and their Lucanian progeny were thus extending their power on the S. to the Sicilian strait, they did not omit to make themselves masters of the fertile plains of Campania, which, together with the flourishing cities of Capua and Cumae, fell into their hands between 440 and 420 B. C. [CAMPANIA.]

time, the Umbrians extended from the Adriatic to the Tyrrhenian sea, and from the mouths of the Padus nearly to those of the Tiber. Of their origin or national affinities we learn but little from ancient authors; a notion appears to have arisen among the Romans at a late period, though not alluded to by any writer of authority, that they were a Celtic or Gaulish race (Solin. 2. § 11; Serv. ad Aen. xii. 753; Isidor. Orig. ix. 2), and this view has been adopted by many modern authors. (Walckenaer, Géogr. des Gaules, vol. i. p. 10; Thierry, Hist. des Gaulois, vol. i.) But, in this instance, we have a much safer guide in the still extant remains of the Umbrian language, preserved to us in the celebrated Tabulae Engubinae [IGUVIUM]; and the researches of modern philologers, which have been of late years especially directed to that interesting monument, have sufficiently proved that it has no such close affinity with the Celtic as to lead us to derive the Umbrians from a Gaulish stock. On the other hand, these inquiries have fully established the existence of a general resemblance between the Umbrian, Oscan, and oldest Latin languages; a resemblance not confined to particular words, but extending to the grammatical forms, and the whole structure of the language. Hence we are fairly warranted in concluding that the Umbrians, Oscans, and Latins (one important element of the nation at least), as well as the Sabines and their descendants, were only branches of one race, belonging, not merely to the same great family of the Indo-Teutonic nations, but to the same subdivision of that family. The Umbrian may very probably have been, as believed by the Romans, the most ancient branch of these kindred tribes; and its language would thus bear much the same relation to Latin and the later Oscan dialects that Moeso-Gothic does to the several Teutonic tongues. (Donaldson, Varron. pp. 78, 104, 105; Schwegler, Römische Geschichte, vol. i. p. 176.)

The dominion of the Sabellian race was thus established from the neighbourhood of Ancona to the southern extremity of Bruttium: but it must not be supposed that throughout this wide extent the population was become essentially, or even mainly, Sabellian. That people appears rather to have been a race of conquering warriors; but the rapidity with which they became blended with the Oscan populations that they found previously established in some parts at least of the countries they subdued, seems to point to the conclusion that there was no very wide difference between the two. Even in Samnium itself (which probably formed their stronghold, and where they were doubtless more numerous in proportion) we know that they adopted the Oscan language; and that, while the Romans speak of the people and their territory as Sabellian, they designate their speech as Oscan. (Liv. viii. 1, x. 19, 20.) In like manner, we know that the Lucanian invaders carried with them the same language into the wilds of Bruttium; where the double origin of the people was shown at a late period by their continuing to speak both Greek and Oscan. (Fest. p. 35.) The relations between these Sabellian conquerors and the Oscan inhabitants of Central Italy render it, on the whole probable, that the two nations were only branches from one common stock (Niebuhr, vol. i. 5. ETRUSCANS.-While there is good reason to p. 104), related to one another very much like the suppose a general and even close affinity between the Normans, Danes, and Saxons. Of the language of nations of Central Italy which have just been rethe Sabines themselves we have unfortunately scarcely | viewed, there are equally strong grounds for reany reinains; but there are some words quoted by an-garding the Etruscans as a people of wholly dif

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