Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 11.djvu/886

* LATIN LANGUAGE. 802 LATIN LANGUAGE. T]ie Umhro-Siibfllian races — Umbrians, Vol- Bcians, xEquians, fSabiiies, JNIarsi, Hirpiiii, Fren- tanj, Samuites, and others — spoke a congeries of related dialects, of which relatively little 's known to-day, and that mainly from inscriptions, place-names, and glosses or casual references in tlie ancient writers. But it is certain that there were two main divisions of language, the l"mlirian and the Oscan; the former spoken in the nortli. the latter in the centre and south of the region. UiiiJKiAN is known from manj' inscriptions, but best from the famous J^iti/tibinc Tiihlfs (q.v.), with inscriptions in Umbrian and Latin, discovered at Iguvium (now Gubbio) in 1444. I'nibrian used the Etruscan alphabet and was written from right to left. Osf.vN was spoken over a more extended region and has left more numerous monuments, notably the earlier inscriptions of Pompeii, and espe- cially tlie famous 'I'abula IJantina, a bronze tablet found at liantia in Apulia in 170,3. Oscan lies nearer to Latin than L'mbrian ; it has a peculiar alphabet derived from the Etruscan and written from right to left. Koth L'mbrian and Oscan ceased to be spoken before the end of the first century. The second — the Faliscb-Latin — group of Italic dialects was spoken over a very limited area, the low i)lateaus to the south and north of the Tiber. Here we find two cognate dialects, the Latin south of the Tiber, in Latium, and the Faliscan in a few scattered settlements to the north. Had not Rome by its position become the con- queror of Italy, Latin would surely have be- come extinct as did Faliscan, which we know only from a few inscriptions. F^or further ac- count and bibliograpliy, see Italic LAxr.fAGES. But of all the members of the Italic group, Latin alone, so far as we know, attained the rank of a literary language, and. owing in part to Roman conquests, extended itself not only over all Italy, but over Northern Africa and all Western Europe, where it still holds ground, as it were, in the form of the Romance tongues. Three stages or states of development are dis- tinguishable in the history of the Latin lan- giagc. The first is anterior to the beginning of literary culture, and may be termed the archaic stage. This period may be regarded as continuing to the time of Ennius (b.c. 230). Its monuments consist in the main of inscriptions: some isolated forms have been preserved by the grammarians, and a few characteristic tendencies are revealed by the early dramatists. This early Latin is seen to be as crude and undeveloped as the Oscan or L'mbrian. Among the most an- cient relics are the quadrangular cippus of tufa, inscribed with very primitive characters running alternately from left to right and right to left, found in ISOO in the Roman Forum: the gold fibula of Xumasios found in a tomb at Pra>neste (Palestrina) ; and the vase inscribed with a long 'curse.' known as the 'Duenos Inscription,' found on the Quirinal Hill in Rome in 1880. Other monuments are the very ancient Carmina Sa- lUiriii preserved by Varro {Dc Litifi. Lat.. vii., 20, 27) ; the Carmen Frnlrum Arrnlium, dating from the time of the kings, and engraved on a brciuze tablet of the reign of Elagabalus, whicii was dug lip in 1778 on the very site of the grove of the ancient college ; the text of the twelve tables (about I3. c. 450), Avhich is known to us in quotations and has not been preserved in its in- tegrity; and the ticipioniim Elotjia, or epitaphs of the Scipios, the earliest of which is perhaps that of L. Cornelius iScipio, son of Barliatus, and consul in ux. 25U. Most of these and many others are given by Wordsworth, Fraymctits and Spichneiis of Early Latin (Oxford, 1874), and Allen, Uiinnanis of lUirhi Lulin ( Itoston, 1880). During this early ]icriod the language devel- oped almost withoiil cxliaiicous aid or :ulditions. Hence Cicero called the age of the Scipios the age of the true Latinily. The second stage is that of literary culture. The literary language had now become something .separate and apart from the vulgar dialect, the srrnio ])hbcius, and its history may be conven- iently traced through three distinct periods, namely, the Anle-Classic;il, the Classical, and the Post-Classical, the middle period convenient- ly subdivided into the Golden Age and the Sil- ver Age. The first period (B.C. 240-84) includes all the writers from Livius Andronicus to Liicilius (d. 103), and is rendered conspicuous by such names as Xafvius, Plautus, Ennius, Cato, Tcrentius, Pacuvius. and Attius, who.sc language is char- acterized not only by the frequent use of archaic forms and <'xprcssions, but by a servile imitation of Greek models. The Romans had been brought by concpicst into close contact with the (ireek cities of Southern Italy and Sicily, Jlacedonia and Aehaia, and Greek literature had become a subject of study and imitation. This imitative tendency, however, is combined with great origi- nality and vigor in Plautus, and unlimited free- dom of thought and expression in Lucilius. The Golden Age (B,c, 84-a.d. 14) is ushered in, as it were, by Varro and Cicero, and may be said to come to an end with the death of Livy. The writings of Lucretius. C;esar, Catullus, Sal- lust, 'ergil, Horace, Propertius, Tibiillus, and Ovid lend lustre to this interval, and exhibit the literary language in its fullest maturity, its most |)erfect stage. The standard of prose was set by Cicero and Osar, that of poetic art by Vergil, To Cicero in particular the language of ])rose owed that elaboration and fiiiisli which have rendered it a stamlard of perfection in style for all time, and evoked the gratitude of his countrymen toward the man who alone among prose-writers had brought to light the utmost capacities of Roman sjicech. His diction is an cxemplincation of the true Roman vrhnnilan, and a protest against the intrusion of the scrmo pic- heius. But the changes wrought by Vergil are more marked even than those which Cicero ac- complished, and his language became the norm in poetry, departures from which were accounted irregularities. Jleanwhile the speech of ordinary life may be traced in such writings, of minor character, as the accounts of the African and Spanish wars appended to C.Tsar's commentaries, book viii. of the De lirllo GiiUico. and the story of the licUum AJexandrinum. To these add many of the let- ters of Cicero, the ffcrmones of Horace, the writ- ings of Vitruviiis, Pompeian inscriptions, and the ftntyricon of Petronius. a work remarkable for the number of examples it affords of the sermo rolidinnns in use among all sorts and conditions of men both at Rome and in the provinces. The Silver Age (a.d. 17-180) is marked by the gradual disappearance from literature of sim-