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VOLSCI

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 198 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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VOLSCI , an See also:

ancient See also:Italian See also:people, well known in the See also:history of the first See also:century of the See also:Roman See also:Republic. They then inhabited the partly hilly, partly marshy See also:district of the S. of See also:Latium, bounded by the See also:Aurunci and See also:Samnites on the S., the See also:Hernici on the E., and stretching roughly from See also:Norba and Cora in the N. to See also:Antium in the S. They were among the most dangerous enemies of See also:Rome, and frequently allied with the See also:Aequi, whereas the Hernici from 486 B.C. onwards were the See also:allies of Rome. In the Volscian territory See also:lay the little See also:town of Velitrae (See also:Velletri), the birthplace of See also:Augustus. From this town we have a very interesting though brief inscription dating probably from See also:early in the 3rd century B.C.; it is cut upon a small See also:bronze See also:plate (now in the See also:Naples Museum), which must have once been fixed to some votive See also:object, dedicated to the See also:god Declunus (or the goddess Decluna). The See also:language of this inscription is clear enough to show the very marked peculiarities which See also:rank it See also:close beside the language of the Iguvine Tables (see See also:IGuvIUM). It shows on the one See also:hand the labialization of the See also:original velar q (Volscian pis= Latin quis), and on the other hand it palatalizes the guttural c before a following i (Volscian facia Latin facial). Like Umbrian also, but unlike Latin and Oscan, it has degraded all the diphthongs into See also:simple vowels (Volscian se parallel to Oscan svai; Volscian deue, Old Latin and Oscan deivai or deiuoi), This phenomenon of what might have been taken for a piece of Umbrian See also:text appearing in a district remote from See also:Umbria and hemmed in by Latins on the See also:north and Oscan-speaking Samnites on the See also:south is a most curious feature in the See also:geographical See also:distribution of the See also:Italic dialects, and is clearly the result of some complex See also:historical movements. In seeking for an explanation we may perhaps See also:trust, at least in See also:part, the See also:evidence of the Ethnicon itself. The name Volsci belongs to what may be called the -CO- See also:group of tribal names in the centre, and mainly on the See also:west See also:coast, of See also:Italy, all of whom were subdued by the Romani before the end of the 4th 'century B. C.; and many of whom were conquered by the Samnites about a century or more earlier. They are, from south to north, Osci, Aurunci, Hernici, Marruci, See also:Falisci; with these were no doubt associated the original inhabitants of See also:Aricia and of Sidici-num, of Vescia among the Aurunci, and of See also:Labici close to Hernican territory.

The same formative See also:

element appears in the See also:adjective See also:Mons See also:Massicus, and the names Glanica and Marica belonging to the Auruncan district, with Graviscae in south See also:Etruria, and a few other names in central Italy (see " I due strati nella popolazione Indo-Europea dell' Italia Antica," in the Atti del Congresso Internazionale di Scienze Storieke, Rome, 1903, p. 17). With these names must clearly be judged the forms Tusci and Elrusci, although these forms must not be regarded as anything but the names given to the Etruscans by the folk among whom they settled. Now the historical See also:fortune of these tribes is reflected in several of their names (see See also:SABINI). The Samnite and Roman conquerors tended to impose the See also:form of their own Ethnicon, namely the suffix -NO-, upon the tribes they conquered; hence the Marruci became the See also:Marrucini, the *Arici became See also:Aricini, and it seems at least probable that the forms Sidicini, Carecini, and others of this shape are the results of this same See also:process. The conclusion suggested is that these -CO- tribes occupied the centre and west coast of Italy at the See also:time of the See also:Etruscan invasion (see ETRURIA: Language) ; whereas the -NO- tribes only reached this part of Italy, or at least only became dominant there, See also:long after the Etruscans had settled in the See also:Peninsula. It remains, therefore, to ask whether any See also:information can be had about the language of this See also:primitive -CO- folk, and whether they can be identified as the authors of any of the various archaeological strata now recognized on Italian See also:soil. If the conclusions suggested under SABINI may be accepted as See also:sound we should expect to find the Volsci speaking a language similar to that of the Ligures, whose fondness for the suffix -See also:sea- we have noticed (see LIGURES), and identical with that spoken by the plebeians of Rome, and that this See also:branch of Indo-See also:European was among those which preserved the original Indo-European Velars from the labialization which befell them in the speech of the Samnites. The language of the inscription of Velitrae offers at first sight a difficulty from this point of view, in the See also:conversion which it shows of q to p; but it is to be observed that the Ethnicon of Velitrae is Veliternus, and that the people are called on the inscription itself Velestrom (genitive plural) ; so that there is nothing to prevent our assuming that we have here a See also:settlement of Sabines among the Volscian hills, with their language to some extent (e.g. in the See also:matter of the diphthongs and palatals) corrupted by that of the people See also:round about them; just as we have See also:reason to suppose was the See also:case with the Safine language of the Iguvini, whose very name was later converted into Iguvinates, the suffix -ti- being much more frequent among the -CO- tribes than among the Safines (see SABINI). The name Volsci itself is significant not merely in its suffix; the older form Volusci clearly contains the word meaning " See also:marsh" identical with Gr. Egos, since the See also:change of *velosto *volus- is phonetically See also:regular in Latin. The name Marisa (" goddess of the See also:salt-marshes ") among the Aurunci appears also both on the coast of See also:Picenum and among the Ligurians; and Stephanus of See also:Byzantium identified the Osci with the See also:Siculi, whom there is reason to suspect were kinsmen of the Ligures.

It is remarkable in how many marshy places this -co- or -ca-suffix is used. Besides the Aurunci and the dea Marica and the intempestaeque Graviscae (Virg. Aen. x. 184), we have the See also:

Ustica Cubans of See also:Horace (Odes i. 17, 11), the Hernici in the Trerus valley, See also:Satricum and Glanica in the Pomptine marshes. For the text and See also:fuller See also:account of the Volscian inscription, and for other records of the See also:dialect, see R. S. See also:Conway, The Italic Dialects, pp. 267 sqq. (R. S.

End of Article: VOLSCI

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