one nation with their victors- The Aborigines are supposed,
by Muller to,have been a tribe of barbaric origin: mixed,with
the Siculi they .formed the Latin nation. A similar encroachment
was made, by another semi-barbarous people,, namely
the Sabines, upon the southern parts, the region of the Oscan
language and the Opie race. Such is the hypothesis: . Itsug-
gests some further inquiry into the- history of the Aborigine!
and of the Sabines. j|
S e c t io n V.-—O f the Aborigines and o f the Sabines.
The people who after conquering the ^ Si,culi oil the Tiber,
and gaining possession of Latium, had the name of Latini,
dwelt in earljer.times on the border of the Apennines, dispersed
in villages without walls, which were situated in the mounT
tains.* Terentius Varro, in his Antiquities, describefctheir
towns or hamlets, and Dionysius has preserved the names,and
the descriptions of the most remarkable-of.th^n. Listar the
metropolis of the Aborigines, was destroyed by the Sabines
from Amitemum, who attacked it by night, and the inhabitants
were never able to recover it.+ This account was taken from
Varro. Portius Cato gave a similar statement. He. said, that
the Sabines from Amitemum conquered the Reatine territpry
from the Aborigines, and took the most considerabl^ eity of that
district, called Qotyna,^ or by Varro Cotylia.§ Niebuhr conjectures
that the Aborigines were driven out of the territory
which they had occupied about Mount Velino and the lake
of Celano, as far as Carseoli and Reate, by the Sabines, and
that having been obliged to retire they cape down the Anio
into the country of the Siculi and to Latium. But Dionysius
gives no information precisely to this purport. He says that
the Aborigines were reinforced by the Pelasgi of Cortona, and
that they sent out .yearly colonies, which were consecrated
bands, who settled in the districts which they were able to
conquer from the Siculi.|| It appears, however, that the Reatine
* Dionysius Hal. b. i. c. 9. f lb. b .i. c. 14.
+ lb. b. ii—c. 50. § lb. b. i. c. 15.
J | These bands were termed SWimyFestus says, ‘‘Saarani appellati isunt Reate
orti, qui ex Septimontio. Ligures, Siculosque exggerunt, nam yere sacro orti sum.”
Ylrg. ^Eneid. vii.796. Niebuhr, Rom. Gesch. i7s. 77. Muller’s Etrusker, Einl.
territory* which the Aborigines had in the first place conquered
from Ihilfembri, became at leh||f}r a part .of the dominion of
•the Sabinesylwho sent oufi.colohles from it,'-^yhichVifolomes
built • manyftowns» invthe^iieighbouringucplAitfies, and among
the reStsfhlpsity of Cn^Si#’
The country originally p6!sse^l<Wby the Sabines was in the
Jiighgst; region ^ central Ital^'.„ A||C^Eding|.>to t^eJ .account
given»,,by. D io n ^ u s -’from. C ||||f||it was distant two' hundred
stadiaTyqmjthe Adriatic, and tfe h u n d re d apd forty-front
»'the-, Tyrrhene, Recording s .te^Q^lpv-the; first habitation
p f the Sabines was a village termed, Fqstritjaj^npt^far from
Amitpitifm. hu's’ iti'ppppars that the ^m e c high^ region in
the Apennines^ of nearly adj oining^ r idns,^wbrC the cradles
o f ^ l l ^ tw o 'celebrated nati'c^s^the Abpfigin'es'br the Latins
and th ^ |a^m e§ ;$ The‘ Sabme^ ‘^derived p - « name from
.'Sabinus|flhe j||n |A f Sanctis, a5 g q r d |^ f their country. This
•feancus 'was^lby Jupiter Fiaipsy s -Dionysius cites
^*ne- XehoJ^ihs of TroezeneV ^who history pf the
Umbrians. According to him the-Sabines, were or^rnsllPy an
j;Urrfbn^n^edpie, who'dwelt m ,‘|hd^erritory ^ R e p |e , until
ybeingArivCrf-thence by* the Pelasgi, the^c^|^into;thefeduntry
which they now i n h a b i t , i n th^rime'of Dionysius, or
perhaps of XenodlotuSjf—ce and' changijijg their abode took the
'hame-fo^Sabines.”^
These tribes from the high central country,' the Aborigines
from Reate, and the|Babiine^%‘from Amitemum, who were
perhaps both pf Umbrian origin, were then the’only nations of
whose conquests in Lower Italy, and particularly over the
Siculian arid Oscan nations, history preserves any record. As
for the hypothesis that they brought into theTtaliah languages
« whatever of barbaric or un-greek origin' existed in the latter,
We shall find a better opportunity, of Considering- it after collecting
some notices on the hisfcoty ahd language’ Of the IJm-
* Dionys. Hal. lib /i; |
f “ Xenodotus the Trcezenian, an historian of the Ombric nation, relates that
being natives of the coUritry-y,a^i.,y ^ |! ^ Lya t first they inhabited what is called
the Reatine, and being thence expelled by the Pelasgi, <sune into that land where
they now dwell’, and having changed their name together with their place, were
called Sabines instead of OmjW6iV*y (Lib. ii. p. 49.)