Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/100

 84 ITALIA. 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- LASGI. It may here suffice to say that the general fact is put fjrvvard prominently by Dionysius and Sti-abo, and has been generally adopted by modern writers from Niebuhr downwards. The Pelasgian population of Italy appears in historical times prin- cipally, and in its unmixed form solely, in the southern part of the peninsula. But it is not im- probable 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 waes of population, which appear under the name of the Oscans or Ausonians, and the Sabellians. At the time when the first Greek colonies were esta- blished in Southern Italy, the whole of the coimtry subsequently known as Lucania and Bruttium was occupied by a people whom the Greeks called Oeno- TUIANS (OiVojTpoi), and who are generally repre- sented 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, Pe- lasgi. (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 haveuoclue whatever to their origin or national affinities. Next to the Oenotrians come the Messapians or lapygians, who are represented by the Greek legends and traditions as of Pelasgic or Greek descent; and there seem reasonable grounds for assuming that the conclu>ion was correct, though no value can be at- tached 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 lapygiau peninsula; and the Peucetians and Daunians, in the country called by the Eomans Apulia. A strong confirmation of the inference derived in this case from other authorities is found in the traces still re- maining of the I^Iessajiian dialect, which appears to have borne a close affinity to Greek, and to have dift'ered from it only in much the same degree as the Macedonian and other cognate dialects. (Mommsen, Unter Italische Dialekten, pp. 41 — 98.) It is far more difficult to trace with any security the Pelasgic population of Central Italy, where it appears to have been very early blended with other national elements, and did not anywhere subsist in an unmingled form within the period of historical record. But various as have been the theories and suggestions with regard to the population of Etniria, there seems to be good ground for assuming that one important element, both of the people and lan- guage, was Pelasgic, and that this element was pre- dominant in the southern part of Etruria, while it was more feeble, and had been comparatively efiaced in the more northern distiicts. [Etkukl,.] The ITALIA. very name of Tyrrhenians, universally given by the Greeks to the inhabitants of Etruria, appears indis- solubly connected with that of Pelasgiaus ; and the evidence of language aflbrds some curious and in- teresting facts in corroboration of the same view. (Donaldson, Varronianus, 2d. edit, pp.166 — 170; Lepsius, Tijrrhen. 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 ditferent 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 Pe- lasgic or Tyrrhenian population was at an early period settled along the coasts of Campania, and was pro- bably 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 ap- plied the same name of Tyrrhenians to the Etrus- cans, who subsequently made themselves masters for some time of the whole of this country. [Cam- pania.] The notices of any Pelasgic population in the in- terior 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 his- torians distinctly represent them as ba^^ng 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 in- definite, 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 Pice- num.) 2. Oscans. — At a very early period, and cer- tainly before the commencement of historical record, a considerable portion of Central Italy appears to have been in the jjossession 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 Auruncans of Roman writers. From them was derived the name of Opicia or Opica, which appears to have been the usual appellation, in the days both of Thucydides and Aristotle, for the central portion of the peninsula, or the country north of what was then called Italy. (Thuc. vi. 4 ; Arist. Pol. vii. 1 0.) All the earhest authorities concur in representing the Opicans as the earliest inhabitants of Campania, and they were still in possession of that fertile dis- trict when the Greek colonies were planted there. (Strab. V. p. 242.) We find also statements, which have every character of authenticity, that this same people then occupied the mountamous region after-