Other Italic peoples

Local populations in areas colonized by Greece

The presence of the Siculi in Sicily and in the Italian peninsula is attested by the historical sources (Thucydides and Polybius). But the extent of their diffusion and their connections with other peoples of the peninsula (such as the Ligurians, the Itali, the Oenotrii, the Ausones) is more difficult to establish. A few small non-Greek inscriptions found in eastern Sicily and referable to the Siculi (the most noteworthy was found at Centuripe), coin legends, and Siculan words reported by Classical writers demonstrate the Indo-European character of the Siculan language, which seems to show an affinity with Latin and also has connections with the Umbro-Sabellian dialects. The immigration of the Siculi from the Italian peninsula into Sicily goes back to a prehistoric but not extremely early epoch; this assumption is based on the fact that there are some echoes of it in tradition and that a continental archaeological influence suddenly appears at the end of the Bronze Age. The characteristic Siculan iron culture, evident in the necropolises of Pantalica near Syracuse and of Finocchito near Noto, flourished between the 9th and the 5th centuries bce and was progressively submerged in the superior civilization of the Greeks.

Evidence is quite scarce for the Siculi in the peninsula and for the other primitive indigenous populations of what is now Calabria and of Lucania (the Oenotrii, Ausones, Chones, Morgetes, and Itali) and Campania (the Ausones and Opici). Modern scholars have hypothesized that along the Tyrrhenian coastal arc there extended in earliest times a belt of paleo-Italic peoples (so-called western Italics or Proto-Latins) originally related to the Latins and distinct from the eastern Italic peoples inhabiting the Apennine and Adriatic regions. (The archaeological documentation consists of cemeteries with Iron Age graves, but there are also traces of cremation necropolises, especially in the province of Salerno and in Calabria.) Large fortified towns arose, particularly in the interior zones of Lucania. The ethnic individuality of these ancient peoples, however, was progressively obliterated between the 8th and the 4th century bce by the Greek penetration and by the expansion of the Etruscans and the eastern Italics (Samnites, Lucanians, Bruttii).

The Apulians

The inhabitants of the southeastern extremity of the Italian peninsula formed a definitely characterized group of populations that the ancients often called Iapyges (whence the geographic term Iapygia, in which “Apulia” may be recognized). The territory included the Salentini and the Messapii peoples in the Salentine Peninsula (ancient Calabia) and the Peucetii and the Dauni farther north. (Sometimes the designations Iapyges and Messapii are used with identical reference.) Ancient tradition insists upon an overseas origin for these tribes, held to be Cretan or Illyrian. The Iapygian, or more commonly, Messapian (Messapic) language is known from a considerable series of public funerary, votive, monetary, and other inscriptions written in the Greek alphabet and found in the Apulian area, especially in the Salentine Peninsula, from words reported by the ancient writers, and from toponomastic (local place-name) data. Messapian is without doubt an Indo-European language, distinct from Latin and from the Umbro-Sabellian dialects, with Balkan and central European analogies. This confirms the overseas provenance of the Iapyges from the Balkans, the more so because there existed in Illyria a tribe called the Iapodes and because a people known as the Iapuzkus lived farther north, on the Adriatic coast of Italy. Rather than a true immigration, however, there was a gradual prehistoric penetration of trans-Adriatic elements. The expansion of the Iapyges must have brought them to Lucania and even to what is now Calabria, as would be deduced from traditional and archaeological indications.

The Apulians’ civilization, which was considerably influenced by that of the nearby Greek colonies, developed from the 9th to the 3rd centuries bce. In the most ancient period there were pit graves, sometimes in large stone tumuli. In the Siponto area, near what is now Manfredonia, the graves were accompanied by anthropomorphic stelae with geometric bas-reliefs. Geometrically painted ceramics in linear motifs persisted to the threshold of the Hellenistic age. Later graves took the form of large trunks and of catacombs with paintings on the sides. Burial was the disposition exclusively used.

Beginning in Archaic times, large cities developed, linked to each other by bonds of confederation. These included Herdonea (now Ordona), Canusium (Canosa), Rubi (Ruvo), Gnathia, Brundisium (Brindisi), Uria (Oria), Lupiae (Lecce), Rudiae, and Manduria. They preserved their independence, tenaciously defended against the Greeks, until the age of the Roman conquest.

The Latins

The Latin nation had a relatively limited territory, south of the Tiber, which was reduced, in historic times, by the invasion of the Volsci to the region between the Alban hills and the Aurunci mountains (the so-called Latium Novum). The principal Latin centres included Alba Longa, Tusculum, Lavinium, Ardea, Tibur (now Tivoli), and Praeneste (Palestrina) and the early Volscianized cities of Velitrae (Velletri), Signia (Segni), Cora (Cori), Satricum, Antium (Anzio), and Anxur (Terracina). The importance of the Latins is essentially linked with the fortunes of Rome, the forward bulwark of Latinity in the direction of the Etruscan realm. Intermixtures with the legends of the origin of Rome make the ethnographic traditions of Latium very diverse and complex. The linguistic evidence, which begins with inscriptions of the 7th to 6th century bce, indicates an individuality of the Latin world distinct from the neighbouring Etruscan and eastern Italic peoples.

The Latins had a federal organization, centred at the sanctuary of Jupiter on Albanus Mons. Their religious heritage survived in the beliefs and cults of the Roman world. The most ancient Latin culture (9th–8th century bce) was characterized by cremation as the funeral rite, a practice it had in common with the cultures in the Etruscan and northern Italian territory, and by an iron culture showing affinities with the proto-Villanovan culture and with the cultures of Tyrrhenian southern Italy. Etruscan political control of Latium (probably 7th–6th century) coincided with an evident Etruscan cultural and artistic influence; while, from the south and from the sea, elements of Greek civilization penetrated, beginning with the alphabet.

North of Latium lived tribes ethnically akin to the Latins, with principal centres at Capena, Narce, and Falerii (whence the name Faliscans). Their political and cultural history merges with that of the Etruscans. The Faliscan dialect, known from inscriptions, was originally Latin but was contaminated and modified by eastern Italic and Etruscan elements.

The eastern Italics

A great part of the central and southern Italian peninsula was occupied in protohistoric and historic times by populations forming a vast ethnic and linguistic unit—the eastern Italics or Umbro-Sabellians. To the south, in the mountains of the Abruzzo, lived the Samnites, who later spread into Campania, Lucania, and what is now Calabria. In the centre were the Vestini, Paeligni, Marrucini, Marsi, Aequi, Volsci, and Sabini. Farther north lived the Umbri. The origin and relationship of all these peoples is unclear. Ancient ethnographic traditions bearing on central Italy link the Samnites to the Sabines and the Sabines to the Umbri, locating their primitive centre of dispersion in the Rieti basin and in the area of Amiternum. Their diffusion was attributed to the mass emigration of an entire generation in search of a new homeland (so-called sacred spring).

The linguistic data prove the unity of the group of eastern-Italic idioms, belonging to the Indo-European stock but differing from the Latin. Within this group may be distinguished a southern variant (Sabellic or Oscan) known from an abundant harvest of epigraphic documents from Samnium, Campania, and southern Italy. This variant is to be attributed to the Samnites and to a large part of the minor stocks of central Italy, including the Sabines, known from isolated inscriptions in central Italy. On the other hand, a northern (Umbrian) variant is represented by inscriptions of Umbria—principally bronze tablets from Gubbio, inscribed between the 4th and 1st century bce by a brotherhood of Umbrian priests—and by a bronze tablet from Velletri. The eastern Italic words reported by the Classical writers, as well as toponomastics, confirm these conclusions.

Notwithstanding the original unity of stock and of language, these populations had diverse histories and cultures. The Samnites from Molise (the Caraceni, the Pentri, and the Frentani) in the 5th and 4th centuries bce occupied Campania—where they vanquished Etruscans and Greeks and assumed from the local tribes the name Opici, or Osci—as well as Lucania (with the Hirpini or Lucani), reaching what is now Calabria—where they took the name Bruttii—and finally Sicily. Defeated by Rome in the Samnite wars (4th and early 3rd centuries bce), the Samnites tried for the last time, in the period of the Social War (90–83 bce), to counterpose to the Romans an Italic nationality of their own. A considerable difference existed between the culture of the mountain Samnites—organized in confederate tribes centred on fortified villages and in the 5th and 4th centuries still retaining aspects of the “iron culture”—and the high civilization of the Campani and Lucani established in the ancient cities of Capua, Nola, Nocera, and Paestum and dominated by Greek and Etruscan influence.

Some central tribes—the Marrucini, Vestini, Paeligni and Marsi—appear to be linked historically, politically, and culturally to the Samnites. The case is different with the Sabines, the Aequi, and the Volsci, whose period of expansion (6th and 5th centuries) is closely connected with earliest Rome and who had early contact with the Etrusco-Latin civilization.

The diffusion of the Umbri toward the north and beyond the Apennines lent credence to the ancient traditions relating to the great size of their territory. The traditions, however, are more probably based on the fact that the name Umbri is derived from that of a most ancient population, probably not Indo-European and certainly not Italic, living in the Apennine region before the diffusion of the eastern Italics. The history of the Umbrian cities—Iguvium (now Gubbio), Hispellum (Spello), Spoletium (Spoleto), Tuder (Todi), and others—is known only beginning with the period of the struggle of the Etruscans and Gauls against Rome. Umbrian civilization is revealed by the Gubbio Tablets, a document unique in its kind. The Umbrian artistic and material culture derived in large part from that of Etruria.

The populations of the Picenum

In historic times, expansion of the eastern Italic peoples placed them firmly along the Adriatic coastal tract corresponding to what is now the Marches region. Epigraphic and archaeological data give evidence also of the presence in the Picenum (an ancient region between the Apennines and the Adriatic) of the trans-Adriatic Liburni and the pre-Indo-European Asili. It is possible that elements were established here that had come by sea from Illyria (the Gubbio tablets mention the Iapuzkus, whose name recalls that of the Illyrian Iapodes and of the Apulian Iapyges). Inscriptions in the southern Piceno, however, seem to exhibit a close kinship with the Umbro-Sabellic dialects.

A material civilization flowered between the 8th and 5th centuries in the northern Abruzzo and in the Marches. This civilization is represented by the rich funerary equipment of burial tombs, whose type and decoration present affinities with the iron culture of Tyrrhenian and northern Italy and with that of the Balkans and which show Greek influence. Cremation tombs of Villanovan type have been found at Fermo. Also noteworthy is the presence of stone funerary sculpture. North of Ancona is a cultural variant, particularly in the necropolis of Novilara near Pesaro, where inscriptions are in a dialect other than that of the southern Picenum and difficult to classify.

It may be held that the middle-Adriatic iron cultures expressed an early Archaic mixture of eastern Italic and trans-Adriatic peoples, influenced by the Etruscans and the Greeks. Contributing to their decline were the Gauls and Syracusans, who established themselves in this area in the 4th century bce. In the 3rd century, the Picenum was already totally conquered by the Romans.

The Veneti

Ancient tradition held the Veneti to be an Illyrian people who, coming from the east, took possession of the region named for them (Venetia). To them are linked the Histri, the Carni, and various Alpine tribes. (The name of the Veneti, or its root, is widely diffused in the ethnic onomastics of central Europe and even of Asia.) The Venetic language is known from funerary and votive inscriptions, from words cited by the Classical writers, and from onomastic and toponomastic data. It is an Indo-European language of Archaic type bearing similarities to the Latin and the Germanic.

The principal centres of the Veneti, located at the western margin of the territory, were Padua and Este. Their culture developed from the 9th century to the period of Romanization, with relationships with the Golasecca, Villanovan, and Etruscan cultures and with the transalpine Hallstatt culture. Maximum development occurred in the 6th–4th centuries bce; particularly noteworthy is the production of figured bronze situlae (conical vessels). In the final period, Gallic (Celtic) influences are found. Phenomena parallel to those of Este appear in Istria. The Veneti were horse breeders and peaceful traders and navigators; protected by the waters of the lower Po and the lower Adige, they preserved their independence against Etruscan expansion and Celtic invasion and in the 3rd century bce entered into peaceful alliance with Rome.

The Ligurians

For the ancients, the name Ligures designated the peoples of northwestern Italy, including northern Tuscany, Liguria, Piedmont, and part of what is now Lombardy. Historical tradition also placed them in central Italy, while the Classical writers and toponomastic affinities give them a broader diffusion beyond the Alps. The Ligurians also included the peoples of Corsica. The more ancient Greeks gave all the peoples of the western world the common designation of Ligyes (i.e., Ligurians).

Linguistic data—furnished by toponomastics, lexical survivals, and Ligurian words cited by Classical writers—betray the presence of a pre-Indo-European Mediterranean stratum akin to that of western Europe. Inscriptions found in upper Lombardy and in the Ticino exhibit Indo-European characteristics and in particular Celtic influences. Thus the Liguri seem to belong to an environment formed in northern Italy after the Celtic invasion and called Celto-Ligures.

The Etruscan expansion in the plain of the Po and the invasion of the Gauls confined the Ligurians between the Alps and the Apennines, where they offered such resistance to Roman penetration that they gained a reputation with the ancients for primitive fierceness. Among the more considerable Ligurian monuments are rock engravings and anthropomorphic sculptures analogous to those of southern France, found in Lunigiana and Corsica. Some of these artistic manifestations are repeated in territories farther east. But it remains doubtful whether the similar cultural imprint indicates an original identity of stock. Ligurian and Celto-Ligurian tombs of the Lombard lakes region, often holding cremations, reveal a special iron culture called the culture of Golasecca, while Ligurian sepulchres of the Italian Riviera and of Provence, also holding cremations, exhibit Etruscan and Celtic influences.

Populations of central northern Italy and of the Alps

The ethnography of the Po and Alpine regions is complex and obscure because of the early spread of Etruscan culture and colonization. The ancients record two major ethnic groups (aside from the Etruscans and the Veneti): the Euganei, inhabiting the plain and the Alpine foothills, and the Raeti, in the valleys of the Trentino and the Alto Adige. Minor peoples in the region belonged to one or the other of these stocks or to Ligurian stocks; with regard to many of these peoples, the sources speak of an Illyrian or an Etruscan origin.

Late inscriptions discovered in the Adige River valley and on the plain have a dialect showing some affinities to Etruscan. Some scholars see in this a blending of local and Etruscan elements, while others speak of an indigenous pre-Indo-European language with Indo-European influences. Primitive toponomastics confirm the existence of a linguistic stratum that could be defined as Raetian or Raeto-Euganean but distinguish it sharply from the Venetic and probably also from the Ligurian. Other inscriptions from the Val Camonica and the Garda district attest to a more noticeable Indo-European dialect, due perhaps to Celtic and Latin influences. To the west are the so-called Lepontian inscriptions.

Thus in the central Alpine and sub-Alpine area, there were original populations, different from the Veneti and the Etruscans, whose kinship with the Ligurians remains uncertain. The distinction between Euganean and Raetic tribes can be based only upon an approximate geographic criterion. To this original ethnic stratum may have belonged the most ancient inhabitants of the region, who settled there before the immigration of the Illyrian Veneti and the Etruscan conquest; certain cremation sepulchres of the Verona and Mantua regions may be attributed to them. Perhaps the existence of a Venetian goddess Reitia, recorded by Strabo and mentioned in inscriptions from Este, is some proof of a Raeto-Euganean cultural persistence in the territory occupied by the Veneti.