Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/886

 866 SABINI. the language of their Oscan subjects; indeed all the extant inscriptions in that language may be consi- dered as Saliello-Oscan, and have probably received some influence from the lan;;uage of the conquerors, though we have no means of estimating its amount. Tiie original Sabines appear to have early lust the use of their own language, and adopted the general use of Latin; which, considering the rugged and secluded character of their country, and their pri- mitive habits of life, could hardly have been the case, had the two languages been radically distinct. On the wnoie, therefore, we may fairly conclude that the Sabines were only a branch of the same great fannly with the Oscaus, Latins, and Umbrians, but apparently most closely related to the last of the three. Their name is generally derived from that of Sabus, who is represented as a son of Sancus, the chief tutelary divinity of the nation. (Cato, ap. Dimys. ii.49; Sil. Ital. viii. 422; Serv. ad Aen. viii. 638.) But another etymology given by ancient w iters derives it from their religious habits and devotion to the worsJiip of the gods. (Varr. ap. Fest. p. .343; Plin. iii. 12. s. 17.) This last derivation in fact comes to much the same thing with the preceding one, for the name of Sabus (obviously a mythol')irical personage) is itself connected with the Greek aiSui, and with the word " sevum " found in tiie Eui;ubine tables in the sense of venerable or lioly, just as Sancus is with the Latin " sanctus," " sancire," &c. (Donaldson, /. c.) The original abode of tiie Sabines was, according to Cato, in the upper valley of the Aternus, about Amiternura, at the foot of the loftiest group of the Apennines. We cannot indeed understand literally, at least as applying to the whole nation, his a.sser- tion (as quoted by Dion3-sius) that they proceeded from a village called Te.-^trina, near Amiternum (C-aXo, ap. Dionys. i. 14, ii.49); though this may have been true of the particular band or clan which invaded and occupied Reate. But there is no reason to doubt the general fact that the Sabines, at the earliest period when their name appears in history, occupied ihe lofty mountain group in question with its adjacent valleys, which, from the peculiar con- figuration of this part of the Apennines, would afford natural and convenient outlets to their migrations in all directions. [Apbnninus.] The sending forth of these migrations, or national colonies, as they may be called, was connected with an ancient custom which, though not unknown to the other nations of Italy, seems to have been more peculiarly characteristic of the Sabines — the Ver Sacrum or " sacred spring." This consisted of dedicating, by a solemn vow, usually in time of pressure from war or famine, all the produce of the coming year, to some deity: Mamers or Mars^eems to have been the one commonly selected. The cattle born in that year were accordingly sacrificed to the diviuitj- chosen, while the children were allowed to grow up to man's estate, and were then sent forth in a body to find for themselves new places of abode beyond the limits of their native country. (Strab. v. p. 250 ; Fest. s. vv. Mamertini, p. 158, Sacrani, p. 321, Ver Sacrum, p. 379 ; Sisenna, ap. Non. p. 522 ; Varr. R.R.m. 16. §29; Liv. xsii.9, 10.) Such colonies were related by tradition to have given origin to the nations of the Picentes, the Samnites, and the Hirpini, and in accordance with the notion of their consecration to Mars they were reported to have been guided by a woodpecker, or a wolf, the animals peculiarly connected with that deity. (Strab. v. SABINL pp. 240, 250 ; Fest. pp. 106, 212.) We have r.o statements of the period at which these successive emigrations towards the E. and S. took place: all that is known of the early history of the nations to which they gave rise will be found in the re- spective articles, and we shall liere content ourselves with tracing that of the Sabines theni.selves, or the people to whom that appellation continued to be confined by the Romans. These, when they first emerged from their u])Iand valleys into the neighbourhood of Reate, found that city, as well as the surrounding territory, in the pos- session of a people whom Dionysius calls Aborigines, and who, finding themselves unable to withstand the pressure of the Sabines, withdrew, after the capture of their capital city of Lista, towards the lower valley of the Tiber, where they settled themselves in Latium, and finally became one of the constituent elements of the Latin people. (Cato, ap. Dimiys. i. 14, ii.48, 49.) [Abouigines; Latium.] Mean- while the Sabines, after they had firmly established themselves in the possession of Reate and its neigh- bourhood, gradually pressed on towards the S. and W., and occupied the whole of the hilly and rugged country which extends from Reate to the plain of the Tiber, and from the neighbourhood of Ocriculum to that of Tibur (r/yo't.) (Dionys. ii. 49 ) The conquest and colonisation of this extensive tract was probably the work of a long time, but at the first dawn of history we find the Sabines already established on the left bank of the Tiber down to within a fow miles of its confluence with the Anio; and at a period little subsequent to the foundation of Rome, they pushed on their advanced posts .still further, and established themselves on the Qnirinal hill, at the very gates of the rising city. The his- tory of the Sabines under Titus Tatius, of the wars of that king with Romulus, and of the settlement of the Sabines at Rome upon equal terms with the Latin inhabitants, so that the two became gradually blended into one peoj/le, has been so mixed up with fables and distorted by poetical and mythological legends, that we may well despair of recovering the truth, or extricating the real history from the maze of various and discordant traditions ; but it does not the less represent a real series of events. It is an unquestionable historical fact that a large part of the population of the city was of Sabine origin, and the settlement of that people on the Quirinal i.s attested by numerous local traditions, which there is certainly no reason to doubt. (Schwegler, Rom. Gesch. vol. i. pp. 243, 478, &c.) We cannot attempt here to discuss the various theories that have been suggested with a view to explain the real nature of the Sabine invasion, and the origin of the legends connected with them. One of the most plausible of the.se is that which sup- poses Rome to have been really conquered by the Sabines, and that it was only by a subsequent struggle that the Latin settlers on the Palatine attained an equality of rights. (Ihne, Researches into the History of the Roman Constitution, p. 44, &c. ; Schwegler, vol. i. pp.491 — 493.) It cannot be denied that this view has much to reconunend it, and explains many obscure points in the early history, but it can be scarcely regarded as based on such an amount of evidence as would entitle it to be received as a historical fact. The Sabine influence struck deep into the cha- racter of the Roman people; but its effect was es- pecially prominent in its bearing on their sacred