The term Italic, applied by linguists, is used variously. In its broadest sense it refers to cultural characteristics relating to all the peoples of ancient and modern Italy, regardless of language. Yet it is most often applied to an Indo-European language family, which includes Latin and related ancient languages, as well as modern languages descended from Latin (although some scholars reserve the term Italic for the ancient languages only). And even when applied in its narrow sense—that is, relating to a language family of peoples on the ancient Italian Peninsula, there is disagreement, because of limited texts and inscriptions, as to what languages should be included and how they relate to one another. Some of the dialects of ancient Italy, such as Etruscan, seem pre-Indo-European and unique. Others, such as Venetic, seem to be related to Illyrian, spoken on the Balkan Peninsula.
The Italics described in this book include the Romans (whose historians provide many of the sources about the other Italic peoples) as well as the Adriani, Aequi, Aurunci, Brutii, Campani, Faliscans, Frentani, Hernici, Latins, Lucani, Marsi, Marrucini, Paeligni, Palmiensi, Praetutii, Sabines, Samnites, Umbrians,
Vestini, and Volsci. These groups as listed in this book are not necessarily mutually exclusive. The Romans are a subgroup of Latins, the people who dominated the italian Peninsula. The Sabines are considered a parent group to others. Ancient writers classified some of the tribes as Samnites.
And resettled by the Romans, the meaning of the names evolved.
Many other tribal names appear in the ancient historical record, some of them perhaps alternate names of the same groups, some subtribes, but others that formed a distinct political identity for a time but about whom little is known. Some among them apparently pre-Indo-European—Carpenati, Enotri, Ligurians, Opici, and Villanovans— are not grouped with the Italics in this book, although they are part of the story of ancient Italy. The Etruscans are thought to have migrated to italy about the same time as the italics, but it is not known from where. Other peoples, such as the Iapyges (Apuli, Messapi, and Peuceti) and Veneti, are grouped as Illyrians. Some of the tribes included in the list of Italics, such as the Frentani, Marrucini, Paeligni, Palmiensi, and Praetutii, may have originally been illyrian-speaking peoples who fused with the italics. The language of the Picenes is not known. The affiliations of the Elymi, Sicani, and Siculi on the island of Sicily are also unknown (although the Siculi may have spoken an italic dialect). some of the peoples listed may actually be descendants of indigenous pre-Indo-European people who spoke italic dialects. Another group on the Italian Peninsula were the Greeks, who colonized sicily and southern coastal areas, beginning in the eighth century b. c.e, sometimes referred to as italiotes.
ORIGINS
The origins of the various Italic peoples are largely hypothetical. Evidence about them is taken from tribal names, place-names, ancient inscriptions, works of ancient writers, and archaeological discoveries. Ancient historical accounts are written by the Greeks as well as Romans, who used often-unreliable sources based in mythology and who wrote from their own nationalistic bias.
The timing of the arrival in Italy of speakers of an Indo-European language or languages ancestral to the italic languages is uncertain, since archaeological evidence rarely provides direct information about language. This uncertainty is compounded by the fact that the timing and place of origin of the Indo-European language family itself are in doubt, with hypotheses ranging from the earliest Neolithic Age, with the first farmers in Europe, to the later Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age. In addition the mechanism of the spread of a proto-Indo-European language—whether by the movement of populations or of ideologies—and their concomitant practices, is still debated. The weight of current thinking is against population movements, at least on any large scale. Hypotheses from different disciplines are converging on a picture of proto-indo-European as emerging during the fourth millennium b. c.e. or somewhat before as part of the slow adoption of a more mobile, pastoral lifestyle in southeastern Europe facilitated by the arrival of wheeled transport and an important change in farming practice. Protoindo-European may have begun as a sort of pidgin or creole dialect used by different peoples to communicate with one another, or it may have been a language chosen to be a lingua franca for the same purpose.
The implications of this picture for the arrival of an indo-European language in italy derive from the idea that the makers of the Corded Ware culture, which appeared in central Europe soon after these innovations in about 3500 b. c.e., began the spread of protoIndo-European over a wide area. The Corded Ware culture did not reach italy. Only after the evolution of the Corded Ware complex into the Early Bronze Age Bell Beaker culture in about 2500 b. c.e. did Italy come into contact with this tide of cultural change. The appearance of Bell Beaker artifacts in italy around this time may signal the arrival of a variant of protoindo-European, possibly introduced by small groups of warriors and adopted by natives who emulated the Beaker lifestyle or used it as a “trade language”—for trade was an important means by which the Beaker lifestyle spread. Thus the first indo-European-speaking migrants would have crossed the eastern Alpine passes into the plain of the Po River sometime around 2500 b. c.e. when the Beaker
World History
