Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/889

 SABINI. Hercules. (Ovid. Fast. vi. 215 ; Sil. Ital. viii. 420; Lact.-mt. i. 1.5; Augustin, C'w. Dei, xviii. 19; Ani- brosch. StrxUeii. p. 170, &c.) Among the other deities whose worship is expressly said to have been introduced at Koine by the Sabines, we f5nd Sol, Feronia, Rlinerva and Mars, or Mamers, as lie was called by the Sabines and their descendants. (Varr. L. L. V. 74.) Minerva was, however, certainly an Ktruscan divinity also; and in like manner Vejovis, Ops, Diana, and several other deities, which are said to be of Sabine extraction, were clearly common to the Latins also, and probably formed part of the mythology of all the Italian nations. (Varro, I.e.; Augustin, C. D. iv. 23 ; Schwegler, Rom. Gesch. i. p. 250 ; Ambrosch. I. c. pp. 141—176.) On the other hand Quirinus was certainly a Sabine deity, notwithstanding his subsequent identification with the deified Eomulus. His temple, as well as that of Sancus, stood on the Quirinal hill, to which indeed it probably gave name. (Varr. L.h.v. 51; Am- brosch, pp". 149, 169.) Connected with the religious rites of the Sabines may be mentioned their superstitious attachment to magical incantations, which they continued to practise down to a late period, as well as their descendants the JIarsi and other Sabellian tribes. (Hor. Epod. 17. 28, Sat. i. 9. 29.) They were noted also for their skill, or pretended skill, in divination by dreams. (Fest. p. 335.) The rites of augury, and especially of ausjiices, or omens from the flight of birds, were also considered to be essentially of Sabine origin, though certainly common in more or less degree to the other nations of Central Italy. Attus Navius, the celebrated augur in the reign of Tarquin the Elder, who was regarded by many as the founder of the whole science of augury (Cic. de Div. ii. 38), was a Sabine, and the institution of the " auspieia majora" was also referred to Numa. (Cic. de Rep. ii. 14.) The Sabine language, as already observed, is known to us only from a few words preserved by ancient writers, Varro, Festus, &c. Some of these, as " multa," " albus," " imperator," &c., are well known to us as Latin words, though said to have originally passed into that language from the Sabines. Others, such as "hirpus" or "irpus" for a wolf, " curis" or "quiris" (a spear), '' nar" (sulphur), " teba" (a hill), &c., were altogether strange to the Latin, though still in use among the Sabines. A more general peculiarity of the Sabine dialect, and which in itself proves it to have been a cognate language with the Latin, is that it inserted the I diganima or f at the commenceiiycn^ of many words i instead of the rough aspirate ; thus they said " fircus," ' fedns," " fostis," " fostia," &c., for the Latin " hircus," " liedus," '' hostis," " liostia," &e. (Varro, L. L. v. 97 ; Fest. pp. 84, 102 ; Klenze, Phi- lolog. Ahhandl. pp. 70 — 76; Jlomnisen, U. I. Dia- lel-te, pp. 335 — 359.) The two last authors have well brought together the little that we really know of the Sabine language. It is not quite clear from the expressions of Varro how far the Sabine lan- guage could be considered as still existing in his time; but it seems probable that it could no longer be regarded as a living language, though the peculiar expressions and forms referred to were still in use as provincialisms. (Klenze, I. c.) The Sabines, we are told, dwelt principally in villages, and even their towns in the earliest times were unwalled. (Strab. v. p. 228 ; Dionys. ii. 49.) This is one of the points in which they were thought SABINL 869 to resemble the Lacedaemonians (Plut. ^om. 16); though it probably arose merely fi-om their sim- plicity of manners, and their retaining unchanged the habits of primitive mountaineers. In accord- ance with this statement we find very few towns mentioned in their territoiy ; and even of these Re.M'e appears to have been the only one that was ever a place of much importance. Inteeockea, about 14 miles higher up the valley of the Veliiius (the name of which is still preserved in Antrodoco), seems never to have been a municipal town ; and it is probable that the whole upper valley of the Veiinus was, municipally speaking, included in the territory of Eeate, as we know was the ease with the lower valley also, down to the falls of the river, which formed the limit of the territory of the Sa- bines on this side; Interamna, as well as Narnia and Ocriculum, being included in Umbria. Falacki- NUM, the birthplace of Vespasian, situated near tha sources of the Veiinus, was certainly a mere village; as was also Fokuli (Civita Tommasa), shmiied in the cross valley which led from Interocrea to Anii- ternum and formed the line of communication between the valley of the Veiinus and that of the Aternus. Amiteenum itself, though situated in the valley of the Aternus, so that it would seem to have more naturally belonged to the Vestini, was certainly a Sabine city (Plin. iii. 12. -s. 17; Strab. V. p. 228), and was probably, next to licate, the most considerable that they possessed. Nuusia, in the upper valley of the Nar, was the chief town of the surrounding district, but was never a place of rauch importance. The lower country of the Sabines, between Keate and Rome, seems to have contained several small towns, which were of municipal rank, though said by Strabo to be little more than villages. Among these were Forum Novum, the site of which may be fixed at Vescovio, on the banks of the Imele, and Forum Decii, the situation of which is wholly unknown. Both these were, as the names show, Roman towns, and not ancient Sabine cities ; the former appears to have replaced the Sabine Casperlv, which was probably situated at Aspra, in the same neighbourhood. On the other hand Cures, the supposed metropohs of the Sabines that had settled at Rome, still retained its municipal rank, though not a place of much importance. The same was the case with Eretum, which was, as already observed, the last of the strictly Sabine towns in proceeding towards Rome ; though Pliny includes Nomentum and Fidenae also among the Sabines. Besides these there were two towns of the name of Trebula, both of which must probably be jilaced in the southern part of the land of the Sabines. Of these Trebula EIutusca (the Jlutuscae of Virgil, Aen. vii. 711) is represented by llonte Leone, about 15 miles S. oi Rieti, and on the right of the Salarian Way ; while Trebula Suffenas may perhaps be placed at S. Antimo near Stroncone, in the hills V. of Rkti. Lastly, Varia, in the valley of the Anio, 4 miles above Tibur, still called Vicovaro, would appear to have been certainly a Sabine town ; the whole valley of the Digentia Licenza), with its villages of Mandela, Digentia, and Fanum Vacunac (the well-known neighbour- hood of Horace's Sabine farm), being included among its dependencies. [Digentlv.] The territory of the Sabines was traversed throughout its whole extent by the Salarian Way, which was from an early period one of the great highroads of Italy. This proceeded from Rome 3 K 3