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Updated: June 21, 2025
Relation of the Latins to the Umbro-Samnites Among the languages of the Italian stock, again, the Latin stands in marked contrast with the Umbro-Samnite dialects. It is true that of these only two, the Umbrian and the Samnite or Oscan, are in some degree known to us, and these even in a manner extremely defective and uncertain.
The novelty of this amusement attracted the Roman youths, and they began to imitate both the Etruscan dancers and the Oscan performers, who had introduced the Atellane fables into Rome.
It is probable, as has been said in this work, that the Annales Pontificum were to a great extent, though not altogether, destroyed in the Gallic invasion. But Rome was not the only city that had Annales. Probably all the chief towns of the Oscan, Sabine, and Umbrian territory had them. Cato speaks of Antemna as older than Rome, no doubt from its records.
The Phoenician, the Greek, the Oscan, the Roman, the Lombard, I have seen them all! leaves gay and glittering on the trunk of the universal life scattered in due season and again renewed; till, indeed, the same race that gave its glory to the ancient world bestowed a second youth on the new.
The Umbrians may possibly have adopted the word -tribus- only when they came under the influence of Roman rule; it cannot with certainty be traced in Oscan. But we ask in vain for the linguistic or historical facts which render such an hypothesis necessary.
'Wittier and more witty. But speak out what shall be the sum? 'Arbaces, I have heard that in thy secret treasury below, beneath those rude Oscan arches which prop thy stately halls, thou hast piles of gold, of vases, and of jewels, which might rival the receptacles of the wealth of the deified Nero.
The Umbrians may possibly have adopted the word -tribus- only when they came under the influence of Roman rule; it cannot with certainty be traced in Oscan. But we ask in vain for the linguistic or historical facts which render such an hypothesis necessary.
They represented in broad caricature national peculiarities. Their language was, originally, Oscan, as well as the characters represented. The principal one resembled the clown of modern pantomime; another was a kind of pantaloon or charlatan, and much of the rest consisted of practical jokes, like that of the Italian Polincinella.
And now after many complaints from the Praetors, for the most part ineffectual, the Emperor at last made a representation to the Senate, concerning the licentiousness of the players; "that in many instances they raised seditious tumults, and violated the public peace; and, in many, promoted debauchery in private families: that the Oscan Farce, formerly only the contemptible delight of the vulgar, was risen to such a prevailing pitch of credit and enormity, that it required the authority of the Senate to check it."
To these examples from north Italy may be added two from the south, Herculaneum and Naples. Herculaneum had much the same early history as its more important neighbour Pompeii. First an Oscan settlement, then Etruscan, then Samnite, it passed later under Roman rule. But excavations, commenced in the eighteenth century and now long suspended, have thrown light on its ground-plan.
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