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MAMERTINI

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 519 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MAMERTINI , or " See also:

children of See also:Mars," the name taken by a See also:band of Campanian (or Samnite) freebooters who about 289 B.C. seized the See also:Greek See also:colony of Messana at the See also:north-See also:east corner of See also:Sicily, after having been hired by See also:Agathocles to dafand it (Polyb. 1. 7. 2). The See also:adventure is explained by tradition (e.g. See also:Festus 158, See also:Muller) as. the outcome of a ver sacrum; the members of the expedition are said to havebeen the male children See also:born in a particular See also:spring of which the produce had been vowed to See also:Apollo (cf. See also:SAMNITES), and to have settled first in Sicily near Tauromenium. An inscription survives (R. S. See also:Conway, See also:Italic Dialects, I) which shows that they took with them the Oscan See also:language as it was spoken in See also:Capua or See also:Nola at that date, and the constitution usual in Italic towns of a See also:free community (touta=) governed by two See also:annual magistrates (meddices). The inscription dedicated some large See also:building (possibly a fortification) to Apollo; which so far confirms the tradition just noticed. Though in the Oscan language, the inscription is written in the Greek See also:alphabet See also:common to See also:south See also:Italy from the 4th See also:century B.C. onwards, viz. the Tarentine Ionic, and so are the legends of two coins of much the same date as the inscription (Conway, ib.

4). From 282 onwards (B. V. See also:

Head, Historia numorum, 136) the See also:legend itself is Graecized (MAMEPTINON, instead of MAAMEPTINOTM) which shows how quickly here, as everywhere, " Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit." On the See also:Roman See also:conquest of Sicily the See also:town secured an See also:independence under treaty (See also:Cicero, Verr. 3. 6. 13). The inhabitants were still called Mamertines in the See also:time of See also:Strabo (vi. 2. 3). See further See also:Mommsen, C.I.L. x. sub loc., and the references already given. (R.

S.

End of Article: MAMERTINI

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