The Sabines (, , , ;
The Sabines divided into two populations just after the founding of Rome, which is described by Roman legend. The division, however it came about, is not legendary. The population closer to Rome transplanted itself to the new city and united with the preexisting citizenry, beginning a new heritage that descended from the Sabines but was also Latinized. The second population remained a mountain tribal state, coming finally to war against Rome for its independence along with all the other Italic tribes. Afterwards, it became assimilated into the Roman Republic.
Etymology
The Sabines derived directly from the ancient
Umbri and belonged to the same ethnic group as the
Samnites and the
Sabellians, as attested by the common ethnonyms of
Safineis (in ancient Greek σαφινείς) and by the toponyms
safinim and
safina (at the origin of the terms
Samnium and
Sabinum).
The Indo-European root
Saβeno or Sabh evolved into the word Safen, which later became
Safin. From
Safinim,
Sabinus,
Sabellus and
Samnis, an Indo-European root can be extracted, sabh-, which becomes Sab- in
Latino-Faliscan and Saf- in
Osco-Umbrian: Sabini and *Safineis.
At some point in prehistory, a population speaking a common language extended over both Samnium and Umbria. Salmon conjectures that it was common Italic and puts forward a date of 600 BC, after which the common language began to separate into dialects. This date does not necessarily correspond to any historical or archaeological evidence; developing a synthetic view of the ethnology of proto-historic Italy is an incomplete and ongoing task.
Linguist Julius Pokorny carries the etymology somewhat further back. Conjecturing that the -a- was altered from an -o- during some prehistoric residence in Illyria, he derives the names from an o-grade extension * swo-bho- of an extended e-grade * swe-bho- of the possessive adjective, * s(e)we-, of the reflexive pronoun, * se-, "oneself" (the source of English self). The result is a set of Indo-European tribal names (if not the endonym of the Indo-Europeans): Germanic Suebi and Semnones, Suiones; Celtic Senones; Slavic Serbs and Sorbs; Italic Sabelli, Sabini, etc., as well as a large number of kinship terms.
Language
There is little record of the Sabine language; however, there are some
glosses by ancient commentators, and one or two inscriptions have been tentatively identified as Sabine. There are also personal names in use on Latin inscriptions from the Sabine country, but these are given in Latin form. Robert Seymour Conway, in his
Italic Dialects, gives approximately 100 words which vary from being well-attested as Sabine to being possibly of Sabine origin. In addition to these he cites place names derived from the Sabine, sometimes giving attempts at reconstructions of the Sabine form.
Based on all the evidence, the
Linguist List tentatively classifies Sabine as a member of the
Umbrian language group of
Italic languages of the Indo-European family, while
Glottolog classifies it as an Old Sabellic dialect alongside South Picene and Pre-Samnite.
Historical geography
Latin-speakers called the Sabines' original territory
Sabinum, and the ancient tribe's name in the
Italian language form of
Sabina. It straddled the modern regions of
Lazio,
Umbria, and
Abruzzo. Within the modern region of Lazio (or
Latium), Sabina constitutes a sub-region, situated north-east of
Rome, around
Reate.
History
Origin and early history
The Sabines settled in Sabinum, around the tenth century BC, founding the cities of
Rieti,
Trebula Mutusca and Cures Sabini.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus mentions the Sabines in relation to the Aborigines, from whom they allegedly stole their capital Lista, with a surprise war action starting from
Amiternum.
Ancient historians debated the specific origins of the Sabines. According to
Strabo, after a long war with the Umbrians the Sabines migrated to the land of the
Opici following the ancient Italic rite of the
Ver sacrum. The Sabines then drove out the Opici and encamped in that region.
[Strabo, Geography, book 5, 7 BCE, p. 250, Alexandria,] Zenodotus of Troezen claimed that the Sabines were originally Umbrians that changed their name after being driven from the Reatine territory by the
Pelasgians. Porcius Cato argued that the Sabines were a populace named after
Sabus, the son of Sancus (a divinity of the area sometimes called Jupiter Fidius).
In another account mentioned in Dionysius's work, a group of
Lacedaemonians fled
Sparta since they regarded the laws of Lycurgus as too severe. In Italy, they founded the Spartan colony of
Foronia (near the Pomentine plains) and some from that colony settled among the Sabines. According to the account, the Sabine habits of belligerence and frugality were known to have derived from the Spartans.
Plutarch also mentions, in the Life of Numa Pompilius, "Sabines, who declare themselves to be a colony of the Lacedaemonians". Plutarch also wrote that the Pythagoras of Sparta, who was Olympic victor in the foot-race, helped Numa arrange the government of the city and many Spartan customs introduced by him to the Numa and the people.
At Rome
Legend of the Sabine women
Legend says that the
Roman Kingdom abducted Sabine women to populate the newly built Rome. The resultant war ended only by the women throwing themselves and their children between the armies of their fathers and their husbands. The Rape of the Sabine Women became a common motif in art; the women ending the war is a less frequent but still reappearing motif.
According to Livy, after the conflict, the Sabine and Roman states merged, and the Sabine king Titus Tatius jointly ruled Rome with Romulus until Tatius' death five years later. Three new centuria of Equites were introduced at Rome, including one named Tatienses, after the Sabine king.
A variation of the story is recounted in the pseudepigraphal Sefer haYashar (see ).
Traditions
Tradition suggests that the population of the early
Roman Kingdom was the result of a union of Sabines and others. Some of the
gens of the
Roman Republic were proud of their Sabine heritage, such as the
Claudia gens, assuming Sabinus as a
cognomen or
agnomen. Some specifically Sabine deities and
were known at Rome:
Semo Sancus and
Quirinus, and at least one area of the town, the
Quirinale, where the temples to those latter deities were located, had once been a Sabine centre. The extravagant claims of
Varro and
Cicero that
augury,
divination by dreams and the worship of
Minerva and Mars originated with the Sabines are disputable, as they were general Italic and Latin customs, as well as Etruscan, even though they were espoused by
Numa Pompilius, second king of Rome and a Sabine.
Religion
Sabine gods
Many of the following deities were shared with the Etruscan religion, and were also adopted into the derivative
Samnite religion and ancient Roman religion.
Roman author Varro, who was himself of Sabine origin, gives a list of Sabine gods who were adopted by the Romans.[Varro, De Lingua Latina 5.74]
Elsewhere, Varro claims Sol Indiges – who had a sacred grove at Lavinium – as Sabine but at the same time equates him with Apollo.[Rehak, Paul (2006). Imperium and Cosmos: Augustus and the northern Campus Martius. University of Wisconsin Press. p 94.] Of those listed, he writes, "several names have their roots in both languages, as trees that grow on a property line creep into both fields. Saturn, for instance, can be said to have another origin here, and so too Diana."
Varro makes various claims for Sabine origins throughout his works, some more plausible than others, and his list should not be taken at face value.[Clark, Anna. (2007). Divine Qualities: Cult and community in republican Rome. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. pp 37–38;]
Emma Dench. (2005). Romulus' Asylum: Roman Identities from the Age of Alexander to the Age of Hadrian. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. pp 317–318. But the importance of the Sabines in the early cultural formation of Rome is evidenced, for instance, by the bride abduction of the Sabine women by Romulus's men, and in the Sabine ethnicity of Numa Pompilius, second king of Rome, to whom are attributed many of Rome's religious and legal institutions.[Fowler, W.W. (1922). The Religious Experience of the Roman People. London, UK. p 108.] Varro, however, says that the altars to most of these gods were established at Rome by Titus Tatius as the result of a vow ( votum).
State
During the expansion of
ancient Rome, there were a series of conflicts with the Sabines. Manius Curius Dentatus conquered the Sabines in 290 BC. The citizenship without the right of suffrage was given to the Sabines in the same year.
[Velleius Paterculus 1.14.6] The right of suffrage was granted to the Sabines in 268 BC.
[Velleius Paterculus 1.14.7]
Prominent Sabines
Gentes of Sabine origin
Romans of Sabine ancestry
-
Titus Tatius, legendary King of the Sabines
-
Numa Pompilius, legendary King of Rome
-
Ancus Marcius, legendary King of Rome
-
Quintus Sertorius, republican general
-
Sextus Vettulenus Cerialis, Roman senator, military commander, and first legate of Judea
-
Attius Clausus, founder of the Roman Claudia gens
-
Sallust, Roman writer
-
Marcus Terentius Varro, Roman scholar
-
Vespasian, Roman emperor and founder of the Flavian dynasty
==Gallery==
See also
Notes and references
Notes
Sources
Ancient
-
Ovid, Fasti (Book III, 167–258)
-
Ovid, Ars Amatoria (Book I, 102)
-
Livy, Ab urbe condita (Book I, 9–14)
-
Cicero, De Republica (Book II, 12–14)
-
Plutarch, Parallel Lives (Romulus, 14–20)
-
Juvenal, Satires (Book III, 81–85)
-
Modern
Further reading
-
Brown, Robert. "Livy's Sabine Women and the Ideal of Concordia". Transactions of the American Philological Association 125 (1995): 291–319. .
-
MacLachlan, Bonnie. Women in Ancient Rome: A Sourcebook. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013. .
External links
