HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXTS

The term “Sabellian” refers to a group of genetically related languages that were spoken throughout a substantial portion of pre-Roman Italy. Oscan and Umbrian are considered the major representatives of this group because they are attested by the largest corpora of inscriptions. The former was spoken in the southern half of the Italian peninsula, in the territories of Samnium, Campania, Lucania, and Bruttium; the latter was spoken east of the Tiber River in Umbria. Other Sabellian languages include Paelignian, Marrucinian, Vestinian, Marsian, Volscian, Hernican, Aequian, and Sabine – languages which were spoken in central Italy in the hill districts lying east and southeast of Rome. Recently, South Picene, a language spoken in southern Picenum and in northern Samnium, and Pre-Samnite, the language of Sabellian peoples who inhabited southern Campania before the arrival of the Oscan-speaking Samnites, have been added to the inventory of Sabellian tongues.

Archeological evidence has not yet shed sufficient light on the dates at which or the routes by which, Sabellian speakers moved into the Italian peninsula. By the beginning of the historical period (c. 700 BC), however, Sabellian speakers had spread over a considerable portion of central Italy, from Umbria and Picenum in the northeast to the Sorrentine peninsula in the southwest (see Map 2). Sabellian tribes were still on the move during the fifth and fourth centuries. Roman historical sources document the invasion of Campania and the capture of Capua, Cumae, and Paestum by Oscan-speaking Samnites.