are equally proximate to each other; at least we discover all the Latin characters in the Oscan, with the single exception of q. With respect to this letter a remarkable permutation takes place between the two languages, the Oscan presenting the consonant p in words in which the Latin has qu. The following specimen exhibits this relation between the Latin and Oscan orthography, as well as that between both of these languages and the Greek :

To these are added from the same monuments the following expressions in Oscan: Suae pis, for si quis; pot pis dat, for quod quis dat; pis ceus Bantina fust, for qui civis Bantinus fuerit. A similar reciprocation of consonants exists, as Müller has pointed out, between cognate dialects of several well-known languages, as between the Irish and Welsh, in the Celtic family of languages, and in part between the different dialects of the Greeks.t

The relation of the Oscan to the Latin prevails through all the grammatical forms of the former language as far as they are known. The masculine terminations in us and os are found in Oscan as in Greek and Latin: an apparently dialectic variety gives ur instead of us. Thus the coins found in countries where the Oscan was spoken have, partly in Greek characters, the inscriptions Loukanos, Arpanos, Atinos, Larinos, and Larinor, and partly in Oscan characters those of Tianur, Sidikinur, Vitelliur. As this ending of the nominative in us or os indicates an analogy between the declensions in the Greek, Latin, and Oscan, it is probable that the whole system of the inflection of nouns in the last-mentioned idiom will be found to coincide with those of the classical languages. In the frequently occurring names, Mulukēs or Mulukis, Tintirīs,

This last instance is proved by the Abellanian stone inscription, and the table of Bantia.

+ I take the liberty of referring my readers here for a more copious illustration of this subject to my little work on the Celtic nations and their languages.

Niumeris, Slabis, Trebis, in Meddis, censtur, pis, we recognise nouns of the third declension. Perum dolom mallom,

in the table of Bantia, is per dolum malum; and Abellanam and Nuflanam may therefore represent similar forms in Greek and Latin. Sakaraklum Herekleis is plainly "Sacellum Herculis," and displays a similar form of the neuter in the second and of the genitive in the third declension. In this manner many forms of the declension have been made out. But it is remarkable that the Latin antiquated form of the ablative in d,-in sententiad, altod, marid, dictatored,-is found to have been prevalent in Oscan even in all declensions, as dolud mallud, com preivatud, toutad præsentid, for "dolo malo, cum privato, totâ," or "eà præsenti," in the Bantian law, indicate. The Bantian table has in verbs likewise the ending in ud, as in the imperative licitud, evidently meant for liceto, in estud, factud, and actud. Here it is characteristic of the third person, which also ends in d and t in the Oscan language. Verbal forms in the table of Bantia are hipid, pruhipid, pruhipust; deivaid, deivast; dat, didist; fefacid, fefacust; fuid, fust; amprufid, urust, herest, peremust, cebnust. In all these instances except one, stands after s, in forms corresponding with the conjunctive perfect in Latin. In these forms the use of s preceded that of r in the Latin itself, as " faxim," " capsim," ," "occisim," are known to have stood for "fecerim," "ceperim," " occiderim." The Oscan also retained the reduplicative indicative of the perfect in more numerous instances than the Latin; thus fefăcust answers to fecerit as didist stood for dederit. The forms in id appear, however, partly indicative of the perfect and partly of the present tense.

These correspondences in grammatical forms are sufficient to prove the affinity of the Oscan language with the Latin, a conclusion which is confirmed by a variety of particular words preserved by ancient authors from the speech of the Opic or Ausonian race. Famel, for famulus, is an Oscan word, and the root of many derivatives; ungulus, the Oscan word for “a ring," is connected with unguis; as is veia, for plaustrum, with veho. The Latin word lux appears in Jupiter Lucetius of the Oscans; and solidus, sollers, sollenis come from the Oscan sollo, for totus, omnis. Supparus, the upper tunic of the Oscan,

comes from "super.' Most of these words are wholly unconnected with the Greek; but ungulus is evidently of the same stock with övv: the root of lux is also Greek, and sollo is related to ὅλος, just as sal is to ἅλς, salio to ἄλλω, sas or suas to as. Thus it appears that the Oscan inscriptions contain words belonging to both portions of the Latin tongue: it has words which are peculiar to the Latin and exist not in Greek, and others which are common to that language and the Greek.* This fact seems to overturn the hypothesis of Niebuhr that the Oscan language only contained the un-greek or barbaric element of the Latin language. The marks of affinity between the Oscan and Latin appear indeed to extend so far into the structure and organization of language, as to render no other supposition admissible but that they were, in the strict sense of the term, dialects of one speech. The Oscan was more rude and less polished in many parts of its structure, and in these instances approached more nearly to the common character of the Indo-European idioms, but without any exclusion of forms or words known to be common to the Latin and Greek languages. We have already taken occasion to remark that, as far as evidence can be collected, a similar opinion is supported in regard to the Siculian idiom. The remains of that idiom actually preserved are not akin to any one portion of the Latin language exclusively of the other; and I am disposed on the whole to adopt the conclusion that all the nations of Southern Italy, namely, the Latin, the Opic, and the Siculian races, spoke cognate dialects of one ancient speech. It will be found, if I am not mistaken, in the sequel, that a similar inference may be extended to the northern Italian nations; but before entering on this inquiry it is necessary to consider the arguments adduced by Müller in support of a different opinion. According to this learned writer the southern parts of Italy were inhabited by various tribes of Pelasgic descent, or allied to the ancient Greeks. They were conquered in the region near the Tiber by the Aborigines, by whom only a portion of the race were expelled from their native soil: the rest remained and coalesced into

Gela and Panis are expressly said to have been common to the Oscan and Siculian languages.

one nation with their victors. The Aborigines are supposed by Müller 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 Opic race. Such is the hypothesis. It suggests some further inquiry into the history of the Aborigines and of the Sabines.

SECTION V. Of the Aborigines and of the Sabines.

The people who after conquering the Siculi on the Tiber, and gaining possession of Latium, had the name of Latini, dwelt in earlier times on the border of the Apennines, dispersed in villages without walls, which were situated in the mountains.* Terentius Varro, in his Antiquities, described their towns or hamlets, and Dionysius has preserved the names and the descriptions of the most remarkable of them. Lista, the metropolis of the Aborigines, was destroyed by the Sabines from Amiternum, 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 Amiternum conquered the Reatine territory from the Aborigines, and took the most considerable city of that district, called Cotyna,‡ 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 came 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

These bands were termed Sacrani. Festus says, "Sacrani appellati sunt Reate orti, qui ex Septimontio Ligures, Siculosque exegerunt, nam vere sacro orti sunt." Virg. Æneid. vii. 796. Niebuhr, Röm. Gesch. i. s. 77. Müller's Etrusker, Einl.

territory, which the Aborigines had in the first place conquered from the Umbri, became at length a part of the dominion of the Sabines, who sent out colonies from it, which colonies built many towns in the neighbouring countries, and among the rest the city of Cures.*

The country originally possessed by the Sabines was in the highest region of central Italy. According to the account given by Dionysius from Cato, it was distant two hundred stadia from the Adriatic and two hundred and forty from the Tyrrhene sea. According to Cato the first habitation of the Sabines was a village termed Festrina, not far from Amiternum. Thus it appears that the same high region in the Apennines, or nearly adjoining regions, were the cradles of these two celebrated nations, the Aborigines or the Latins and the Sabines. The Sabines derived their name from Sabinus, the son of Sancus, a genius of their country. This Sancus was by some called Jupiter Fidius. Dionysius cites one Xenodotus of Troezene, who wrote the history of the Umbrians. According to him the Sabines were originally an Umbrian people, who dwelt in the territory of Reate, until being driven thence by the Pelasgi, they came into the country which they now inhabit, namely, in the time of Dionysius, or perhaps of Xenodotus, "and changing their abode took the name of Sabines."+

These tribes from the high central country, the Aborigines from Reate, and the Sabines from Amiternum, who were perhaps both of Umbrian origin, were then the only nations of whose conquests in Lower Italy, and particularly over the Siculian and Oscan nations, history preserves any record. As for the hypothesis that they brought into the Italian 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 history and language of the Um

Dionys. Hal. lib. i.

+ "Xenodotus the Træzenian, an historian of the Ombric nation, relates that being natives of the country-avliyevɛeç-at first they inhabited what is called the Reatine, and being thence expelled by the Pelasgi, came into that land where they now dwell, and having changed their name together with their place, were called Sabines instead of Ombrici." (Lib. ii. p. 49.)