Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/453

ITALIC RACES AND LANGUAGES 439 or Ligurians, of whose origin nothing authentic has been recorded, and of whose language no monuments are extant. Several modern wri- ters have maintained the Celtic origin or affinity of the Ligurians, while others have denied that they have any connection with the Indo-Euro- peans. The Gauls of upper Italy, according to the authorities followed by Livy, immigrated in the reign of Tarqninius Prisons, and they are classed as Celts. The inhabitants of Venetia, the Veneti in the west, and the Carni in the east, are spoken of by Polybius as a different people from the Gauls their neighbors, and as using a different language. Herodotus represents the Veneti as an Illyrian tribe, but it seems that the name Illyrian was given indiscriminately to all the mountaineers of the N. and E. coasts of the Adriatic. Modern scholars are inclined to consider the Veneti as related to the Illyrians or the ancestors of the present Albanians. There is good reason for referring their neigh- bors the Istrians to the same stock ; but the Carni were more probably Celtic. The Eu- ganei, whom Livy describes as once great and powerful, and occupying the whole tract be- tween the Alps and the sea, were of little im- portance in historical times, and there are no data from which to deduce their ethnological relation. The affinity of the Etruscans also has not yet been established, and they have been variously classed as Semites, Indo-Euro- peans, and Mongolians ; but it is probable that their origin will some day be determined, as we are in possession of a sufficient number of monuments of their language to lead finally to their interpretation, while the linguistic mate- rial of the other nations consists only in prop- er names and a few words scattered through the writings of the Greeks and Romans. The Japygians of the S. E. portion of Italy seem to have been composed of several tribes or nations, among which were the Messapians, Salentines, and Peucetians. Niebuhr considers the name as etymologioally connected with the Latin Apulus. The Apulians properly so called were probably a branch of the great Oscan or Ausonian, and not of the Sabellian race. The Daunians, neighbors of the Peucetians, were from their first appearance in history com- pletely blended with the Apulians. The Peuce- tians, however, retained a separate nation- ality to a comparatively late period. On the C'ulabrian peninsula were the Messapians or Calabrians proper and the Salentines. Both races are represented in ancient tradition as Cretans, and it seems that they were closely /elated to the Hellenic races, as they adopted with great facility the manners and arts of Greek settlers. Modern authorities consider the Calabriana and Messapians as of the same tribe. Traces still remaining of the Messapian dialect have confirmed the opinion of their Pelasgic or Hellenic origin, as their language appears to have differed from Greek to no greater degree than the Macedonian and other dialects. Many of the oldest tribes of Italy are described by ancient writers as belong- ing to the Pelasgic race. (See PELASOIANS.) A large portion of central Italy was occu- pied from an early period by a people whom the Greeks called Opicans and the Latins Os- cans, and whom many identify with the Auso- nians of the Greeks and the Auruncans of the Romans. The Volsci and their neighbors the ^Equi also were probably of Oscan race. It is believed that the Latini or inhabitants of Latium were composed of two distinct races, the one more closely related to the Greek or Pelasgic stock, the other to the Italic race proper; but when the Latin people first ap- peared in history, these two elements were certainly blended into one, and they and their language are always regarded by Roman wri- ters as an organic whole. The oldest form of the Latin bore a close resemblance to the ex- tant monuments of the Oscan language. It is difficult to determine the precise relation which the primitive Oscans bore to the Sabines or Sabellians, but there are strong reasons for supposing that both nations were members of the same family or race. It seems certain that the immigration of the Sabellians cannot be carried back to a very remote age. When first mentioned they had not been long established in central Italy, and their extension further south took place soon after the establishment of Greek colonies in the south of the penin- sula. The original territory of the Sabines was the central Apennines, whence they descend- ed and pressed upon an Oscan race whom they expelled from the valleys about Reate. The Sabines gradually extended as far as the region still known as La Sabina, and separate colonies of Sabines established themselves to the east and west of their early abode. The most celebrated of these were the Samnites and the Piceni or Picentes. The Sabine de- scent of the Peligni is clearly attested, and the close connection of these with the Marsi, Mar- rucini, and Vestini renders it probable that these four nations were of the same ethnic ori- gin. The Frentani, Hirpini, and Lucanians are also usually described as separate Samnite colo- nies, and the Bruttians seem to have been a mixed population, made up of Lucanian con- querors and (Enotrian serfs. But though the Sabellian race reached thus from the neighbor- hood of Ancona to the southern extremity of Bruttium, it appears to have been a race of conquering warriors who rapidly blended with the Oscan population whom they subdued. The most ancient people of Italy, on the unani- mous testimony of ancient authors, were the Umbrians, who at a very early period were a great and powerful nation in the northern half of central Italy. According to Xenodotus of Troezen, the Sabines themselves were a branch of the Umbrians. Philological research has clearly established that the Umbrian language was quite distinct from the Etruscan, and closely related to the Oscan as spoken by the Sabellian tribes, and also to the old Latin. This