period (Strab. v. p. 231); and Cicero even extols the | The volcanic district of Rome, as we may term the situation of Rome, as compared with the rest of La- more northern of the two, is about 100 miles in tium, as "a healthy spot in the midst of a pes-length, by 30 to 35 in breadth; while that of Camtilential region." (Cic. de Rep. ii. 6.) But the pania is about 60 miles long, with an average, imperial city itself was far from being altogether though very irregular, breadth of 20. North of the exempt. Horace abounds with allusions to the pre- former lie the detached summits of Mte. Amiata and valence of fevers in the summer and autumn (Ep. Radicofani, both of them composed of volcanic rocks; i. 7, Sat. ii. 6. 19, Carm. ii. 14. 16), though the while at a distance of 60 miles E. of the Campanian dense population must have tended materially to basin, and separated from it by the intervening mass repress them. Even at the present day the most of the Apennines, is situated the isolated volcanic thickly peopled parts of Rome are wholly exempt peak of Mt. Vultur (Voltore), a mountain whose from malaria. (This question is more fully dis- regular conical form, and the great crater-shaped cussed under the article LATIUM.) basin on its northern flank, at once prove its volcanic The volcanic phenomena displayed so conspicu- character; though this also, as well as the volcanoes ously in some parts of Italy did not fail to attract the of Latium and Etruria, has displayed no signs of attention of ancient writers. The eruptions of Ae-activity within the historical era. (Daubeny, On naria, which had occurred soon after the first settle-Volcanoes, ch. xi.) ment of the Greek colonists there, were recorded by Timaeus (ap. Strab. v. p. 248); and the fables connected with the lake Avernus and its neighbourhood had evidently a similar origin. Strabo also correctly argued that Vesuvius was itself a volcanic mountain, long before the fearful eruption of A. D. 79 gave such signal proof that its fires were not, as he supposed, extinct. (Strab. v. p. 247.) This catastrophe, fearful as it was, was confined to Campania; but earthquakes (to which Italy is so subject at the present day) appear to have been not less frequent and destructive in ancient times, and were far from being limited to the volcanic regions. They are mentioned as occurring in Apulia, Picenum, Umbria, Etruria, Liguria, and other parts of Italy; and though their effects are generally noticed somewhat vaguely, yet the leading phenomena which accompany them at the present day-the subsidence of tracts of land, the fall of rocks and portions of mountains, the change of the course of rivers, the irruption of the sea, as well as the overthrow of buildings, and sometimes of whole towns and citiesare all mentioned by ancient writers. (Liv. xxii. 5; Jul. Obseq. 86, 96, 105, 106, 122, &c.) Slight shocks were not unfrequent at Rome itself, though it never suffered any serious calamity from this cause. But the volcanic action, which had at a far distant period extended over broad tracts of Central Italy, and given rise to the plains of the Campagna and the Phlegraean Fields, as well as to the lofty groups of the Alban and Ciminian hills, had ceased long before the age of historical record; and no Roman writer seems to have suspected that the Alban lake had once been a crater of eruption, or that the "silex" with which the Via Appia was paved was derived from a stream of basaltic lava. [LATIUM.]

The volcanic region (in this geological sense) of Central Italy consists of two separate tracts of country, of considerable extent; the one comprising the greater part of Old Latium (or what is now called the Campagna of Rome), together with the southern part of Etruria; and the other occupying a large portion of Campania, including not only Vesuvius and the volcanic hills around the lake Avernus, but the broad and fertile plain which extends from the Bay of Naples to the banks of the Liris. These two tracts of volcanic origin are separated by the Volscian mountains, a series of calcareous ranges branching off from the Apennines, and filling up the space from the banks of the Liris to the borders of the Pontine marshes, which last form a broad strip of alluvial soil, extending from the volcanic district of the Roman Campagna to the Monte Circello.

VOL. II.

It is scarcely necessary to enumerate in detail the natural productions of Italy, of which a summary view has already been given in the passages cited from ancient authors, and the details will be found under the heads of the several provinces. But it is worth while to observe how large a portion of those productions, which are at the present day among the chief objects of Italian cultivation, and even impart to its scenery some of its most peculiar characters, are of quite modern introduction, and were wholly unknown when the Greek and Roman writers were extolling its varied resources and inexhaustible fertility. To this class belong the maize and rice so extensively cultivated in the plains of Lombardy, the oranges of the Ligurian coast and the neighbourhood of Naples, the aloes and cactuses which clothe the rocks on the sea-shore in the southern provinces; while the mulberry tree, though well known in ancient times, never became an important object of culture until after the introduction of the silk-worm in the 13th century. Of the different kinds of fruits known to the ancient Romans, many were undoubtedly of exotic origin, and of some the period of their introduction was recorded; but almost all of them throve well in Italy, and the gardens and orchards of the wealthy Romans surpassed all others then known in the variety and excellence of their produce. At the same time, cultivation of the more ordinary descriptions of fruit was so extensive, that Varro remarks: "Arboribus consita Italia est, ut tota pomarium videatur." (R. R. i. 2. § 6.)

Almost all ancient writers concur in praising the metallic wealth of Italy; and Pliny even asserts that it was, in this respect also, superior to all other lands; but it was generally believed that the government intentionally discouraged the full exploration of these mineral resources. (Plin. iii. 20. s. 24, xxxvii. 13. s. 77; Strab. vi. p. 286; Dionys. i. 37; Virg. Georg. ii. 166.)

It is doubtful whether this policy was really designed to husband their wealth or to conceal their poverty; but it is certain that Italy was far from being really so rich in metallic treasures as was supposed, and could bear no comparison in this respect with Spain. Gold was unquestionably found in some of the streams which flowed from the Alps, and in some cases (as among the Ictymuli and Salassi) was extracted from them in considerable quantities; but these workings, or rather washings, appear to have been rapidly exhausted, and the goldworks on the frontiers of Noricum, celebrated for their richness by Polybius, had ceased to exist in the days of Strabo. (Strab. iv. p. 208.) Silver is enumerated, also, among the metallic treasures of

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Italy; but we have no specific account of its pro- | 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.

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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, 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.

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parallel with the greater river for a distance of above 50 miles. E. of this, and flowing from the Alps direct to the Adriatic, come in succession, the Medoacus or Brenta, the Plavis or Piare, the Tilavemptus (Tagliamento), and the Sontius (Isonzo), besides many smaller streams, which will be noticed under the article VENETIA.

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 (Ombrone), and the Arminia (Fiora). The great 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 The PADUS, or Po, is by far the most important Liri), which has its sources in the central Apenriver of Italy, flowing from W. to E. through the nines near the lake Fucinus; and the VULTURvery midst of the great basin or trough of Northern NUS (Volturno), which brings with it the collected Italy, and receiving, in consequence, from both sides, waters of almost the whole of Samnium, receiving all the waters from the southern declivities of the near Beneventum the tributary streams of the Calor Alps, as well as from the northern slopes of the (Calore), the Sabatus (Sabbato), and the Tamarus Apennines. Hence, though its course does not ex- (Tamaro). Both of these rivers flow through the ceed 380 geog. miles in length, and the direct distance plain of Campania to the sea: south of that province, from its sources in the Mons Vesulus (Mte. Viso) to and separating it from Lucania, is the SILARUS its mouth in the Adriatic is only 230 miles, the (Sele), which, with its tributaries the Calor (Calore) body of water which it brings down to the sea is and Tanager (Negro), drains the western valleys of very large. Its principal tributaries are as follows, the Lucanian Apennines. This is the last river of beginning with those on the N. bank, and proceeding any magnitude that flows to the western coast of from W. to E. :-(1) the Duria Minor (Doria Ripa- Italy: further to the S. the Apennines approach so ria), which joins the Po near Turin Augusta Tauri- near to the shore that the streams which descend norum; (2) the Stura (Stura); (3) the Orgus (Orco), from them to the sea are mere mountain torrents of (4) the Duria Major, or Dora Baltea; (5) the Ses-trifling length and size. One of the most considersites (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 eonsiderable 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

able of them is the Laus (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);

(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 Bradanus (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.)

cipal summits of the latter range have been already noticed under the article APENNINUS. The few outlying or detached summits, which do not properly belong 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 to above 3000 feet; (4) the MONS VESUVIUS, in Campania, attaining between 3000 and 4000 feet; (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.

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

IV. ETHNOGRAPHY OF ANCIENT ITALY. The inquiry into the origin and affinities of the different races which peopled the Italian peninsula before it fell altogether under the dominion of Rome, and the national relations of the different tribes with which the rising republic came successively into contact, is a problem which has more or less attracted the attention of scholars ever since the revival of letters. But it is especially of late years that the impulse given to comparative philology, combined with the spirit of historical criticism, has directed their researches to this subject. Yet, after all that has been written on it, from the time of Niebuhr to the present day, it must be admitted that it is still enveloped in great obscurity. The scantiness of the monuments that remain to us of the languages of these different nations; the various and contradictory statements of ancient authors concerning them; and the uncertainty, even with regard to the most ap

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 from the mountains. Hence they are, as it were, valleys filled with water, and are of elongated form and considerable depth; while their superfluous waters are carried off in deep and copious streams, which become some of the principal feeders of the Po. Such are the Lacus Verbanus (Lago Maggiore), formed by the Ticinus; the Lacus Larius (Lago di Como), by the Addua; the Lacus Sebinus (Lago d'Iseo), by the Ollius; and the Lacus Benacus (Lago di Garda), by the Mincius. To these Pliny adds the Lacus Eupilis, from which flows the Lamber or Lambro, a very trifling sheet of water (Plin. iii. 19. s. 23); while neither he, nor any other ancient writer, mentions the Lago di Lugano, situated between the Lake of Como and Lago Maggiore, though it is inferior in magnitude only to the three great lakes. It is first mentioned by Gregory of Tours 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 volcanoes. Hence 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. 3. Wholly differing from the preceding are the two most considerable 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.

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, the different nations of the peninsula may be grouped under five heads:-(1) the Pelasgians; (2) the Oscans; (3) the Sabellians; (4) the Umbrians; (5) the Etruscans.

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

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 in

(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.

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 are more fully discussed under the article PE-teresting facts in corroboration of the same view. LASGI. 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 (Olvwτpoi), 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.

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 Peucetians and Daunians, in the country called by the Romans Apulia. A strong confirmation of the inference derived in this case from other authorities is found in the traces still remaining 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.)

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.)

2. OSCANS. At a very early period, and certainly before the commencement of historical record, 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

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.

wards called Samnium, until they were expelled, or rather subdued, by the Sabine colonists, who assumed the name of Samnites. (Id. 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 The Sabines, properly so called, had their original race; and the analogy of language leads us to derive abodes, according to Cato (ap. Dionys. ii. 49), in the this latter element from the Oscan. (Donaldson, .c.) lofty ranges of the central Apennines and the upland Indeed the extant monuments of the Oscan lan- valleys about Amiternum. It was from thence that, guage are sufficient to prove that it bore a very close descending towards the western sea, they first began relation to the oldest form of the Latin; and Niebuhr to press upon the Aborigines, an Oscan race, whom justly remarks, that, had a single book in the Oscan they expelled from the valleys about Reate, and thus language been preserved, we should have had little gradually extended themselves into the country difficulty in deciphering it. (Niebuhr, vol. i. p. 68.) which they inhabited under the Romans, and which It is difficult to determine the precise relation still preserves its ancient name of La Sabina. But, which this primitive Oscan race bore to the Sabines while the nation itself had thus shifted its quarters or Sabellians. The latter are represented as con- nearer to the Tyrrhenian Sea, it had sent out at querors, making themselves masters of the countries different periods colonies or bodies of emigrants, previously occupied by the Oscans; but, both in which had established themselves to the E. and S. Samnium and Campania, we know that the language of their original abodes. Of these, the most powerful spoken in historical times, and even long after the and celebrated were the Samnites (Zavvirai), a people Roman conquest, was still called Oscan; and we who are universally represented by ancient historians even find the Samnites carrying the same language as descended from the Sabines (Strab. v. p. 250; with them, as they gradually extended their con- Fest. v. Samnites; Varr. L. L. vii. § 29); and this quests, into the furthest recesses of Bruttium. (Fest. tradition, in itself sufficiently trustworthy, derives s. v. Bilingues Brutates, p. 35.) There seems little the strongest confirmation from the fact already nodoubt that the Samnite conquerors were a com- ticed, that the Romans applied the name of Sabelli paratively small body of warriors, who readily adopted (obviously only another form of Sabini) to both nathe language of the people whom they subdued, like tions indiscriminately. It is even probable that the the Normans in France, and the Lombards in Samnites called themselves Sabini, or Savini, for the Northern Italy. (Niebuhr, vol. i. p. 67.) But, at Oscan name "Safinim" is found on coins struck the same time, there are strong reasons for sup- during the Social War, which in all probability beposing that the language of the Sabines themselves, long to the Samnites, and certainly not to the Saand therefore that of the conquering Sabellian race, bines proper. Equally distinct and uniform are the was not radically distinct from that of the Oscans, testimonies to the Sabine origin of the Piceni or but that they were in fact cognate dialects, and that Picentes (Plin. iii. 13. s. 18; Strab. v. p. 240), who the two nations were members of the same family are found in historical times in possession of the or race. The questions concerning the Oscan lan- fertile district of Picenum, extending from the cenguage, so far as it is known to us from existing monu-tral chain of the Apennines to the Adriatic. The ments, 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 Momsen, Oskische Studien, 8vo. Berlin, 1845, and Nachträge, Berl. 1846, and his Unter Italischen Dialekte, Leipzig, 1850, pp. 99316; Klenze, Philologische Abhandlungen, 8vo. Berlin, 1839.

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