opinion of Lepsius, these two tongues pervaded the greater part of Italy, and were allied by perceptible affinities.
The extant remains of the Oscan show enough in common with Latin, to suggest the belief that they were sister-tongues, though mutually quite unintelligible. The Oscan has often r final in substantives, where the Latin has s, and begins its interrogatives with p instead of qu. In the latter point, it sides with the Greek and the Welsh, against the Latin and the Erse.
A single sentence reported by Dionysius[1] from Zenodotus of Troezen, has led the moderns to believe that the Sabine people, another fruitful stock of Italian population, was merely a branch of the Umbrians; but whether the relation of the two should be compared to that of high and low Germans, or rather that of Germans and Scandinavians, remains very uncertain.
A third and highly important element was added to Italy by colonization from the Grecian seas, to which Italy was indebted for letters and arts. The colonists are referable to three classes,—Hellenes or true Greeks,—Pelasgians,—and Etruscans.
The earliest pure Greek colony in Italy, which history reports, is the town of Cumæe in Campania,
- ↑ Zenodotus says, that indigenous Umbrians were driven out of the country of Reate by the Pelasgians, and in their new abode were called Sabines. Dion. ii. 49.
