TheSabines (US:/ˈseɪbaɪnz/,SAY-bynes,UK:/ˈsæbaɪnz/,SAB-eyens;[1]Latin:Sabini ) were anItalic people who lived in the centralApennine Mountains (seeSabina) of the ancientItalian Peninsula, also inhabitingLatium north of theAnio before thefounding of Rome.
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 alsoLatinized. 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 theRoman Republic.
The Sabines derived directly from the ancientUmbrians and belonged to the same ethnic group as theSamnites and theSabelli, as attested by the common ethnonyms ofSafineis (in ancient Greekσαφινείς) and by the toponymssafinim andsafina (at the origin of the termsSamnium andSabinum).[2] TheIndo-Europeanroot*Saβeno or*Sabh evolved into the wordSafen, which later becameSafin. FromSafinim,Sabinus,Sabellus andSamnis, anIndo-European root can be extracted,*sabh-, which becomesSab- inLatino-Faliscan andSaf- inOsco-Umbrian:Sabini and*Safineis.[3]
At some point in prehistory, a population speaking a common language extended over both Samnium andUmbria. 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.[4]
LinguistJulius Pokorny carries the etymology somewhat further back. Conjecturing that the -a- was altered from an -o- during some prehistoric residence inIllyria, 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 Englishself). The result is a set of Indo-European tribal names (if not the endonym of the Indo-Europeans): GermanicSuebi andSemnones,Suiones; CelticSenones; SlavicSerbs andSorbs; ItalicSabelli,Sabini, etc., as well as a large number of kinship terms.[5]
| Sabine | |
|---|---|
| lingua Sabina | |
| Pronunciation | [saˈbiːna] |
| Native to | Sabina (Sabinum) |
| Region | CentralItaly |
| Ethnicity | Sabines |
| Era | 1st millennium BC – 1st millennium AD |
| Latin alphabet | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | sbv |
sbv | |
| Glottolog | sabi1245 |
 The linguistic landscape of Central Italy at the beginning of Roman expansion[citation needed] | |
There is little record of the Sabine language; however, there are someglosses 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 hisItalic 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.[6] Based on all the evidence, theLinguist List tentatively classifies Sabine as a member of theUmbrian group ofItalic languages of theIndo-European family, whileGlottolog classifies it as an Old Sabellic dialect alongsideSouth Picene andPre-Samnite.
Latin-speakers called the Sabines' original territory, straddling the modern regions ofLazio,Umbria, andAbruzzo,Sabinum. To this day[update], it bears the ancient tribe's name in theItalian form ofSabina. Within the modern region of Lazio (orLatium),Sabina constitutes a sub-region, situated north-east ofRome, aroundRieti.
The Sabines settled in Sabinum, around the tenth century BC, founding the cities ofReate,Trebula Mutuesca andCures Sabini.[7][8]Dionysius of Halicarnassus mentions the Sabines in relation to theAborigines, from whom they allegedly stole their capital Lista, with a surprise war action starting fromAmiternum.[9] Ancient historians debated the specific origins of the Sabines. According toStrabo the Sabines, after a long war with the Umbrians, migrated to the land of theOpici, following the ancient Italic rite of theVer Sacrum. The Sabines then drove out the Opici and encamped in that region.[10] Zenodotus of Troezen claimed that the Sabines were originally Umbrians that changed their name after being driven from the Reatine territory by thePelasgians. Porcius Cato argued that the Sabines were a populace named afterSabus, the son of Sancus (a divinity of the area sometimes called Jupiter Fidius).[11] In another account mentioned in Dionysius's work, a group ofLacedaemonians fledSparta since they regarded the laws ofLycurgus as too severe. In Italy, they founded the Spartan colony ofForonia (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.[12] 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.[13]
Legend says that theRomans 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 toLivy, after the conflict, the Sabine and Roman states merged, and the Sabine kingTitus Tatius jointly ruled Rome withRomulus until Tatius' death five years later. Three newcenturies ofEquites were introduced at Rome, including one named Tatienses, after the Sabine king.
A variation of the story is recounted in the pseudepigraphalSefer haYashar (seeJasher 17:1–15).
Tradition suggests that the population of the earlyRoman kingdom was the result of a union of Sabines and others. Some of thegentes of theRoman republic were proud of their Sabine heritage, such as theClaudia gens, assuming Sabinus as acognomen oragnomen. Some specifically Sabine deities andcults were known at Rome:Semo Sancus andQuirinus, and at least one area of the town, theQuirinale, where the temples to those latter deities were located, had once been a Sabine centre. The extravagant claims ofVarro andCicero thataugury,divination by dreams and the worship ofMinerva andMars originated with the Sabines are disputable, as they were general Italic and Latin customs, as well asEtruscan, even though they were espoused byNuma Pompilius, second king of Rome and a Sabine.[14]
Many of these deities were shared with theEtruscan religion, and were also adopted into the derivativeSamnite andancient Roman religion.Roman authorVarro, who was himself of Sabine origin, gives a list of Sabine gods who were adopted by the Romans.[15]Elsewhere, Varro claimsSol Indiges – who had asacred grove atLavinium – as Sabine but at the same time equates him withApollo.[19][20] 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."[f]
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.[21] But the importance of the Sabines in the early cultural formation of Rome is evidenced, for instance, by thebride abduction of the Sabine women byRomulus's men, and in the Sabine ethnicity ofNuma Pompilius, secondking of Rome, to whom are attributed many of Rome's religious and legal institutions.[22] Varro, however, says that the altars to most of these gods were established at Rome byKing Tatius as the result of a vow (votum).[g]
During the expansion ofancient 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.[23] The right of suffrage was granted to the Sabines in 268 BC.[24]
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Twenty-four stades from the afore-mentioned city stood Lista, the mother-city of the Aborigines, which at a still earlier time the Sabines had captured by a surprise attack, having set out against it from Amiternum by night.
But Zenodotus of Troezen, a...historian, relates that the Umbrians, a native race, first dwelt in the Reatine territory, as it is called, and that, being driven from there by the Pelasgians, they came into the country which they now inhabit and changing their name with their place of habitation, from Umbrians were called Sabines. But Porcius Cato says that the Sabine race received its name from Sabus, the son of Sancus, a divinity of that country, and that this Sancus was by some called Jupiter Fidius.
There is also another account given of the Sabines in the native histories, to the effect that a colony of Lacedaemonians settled among them at the time when Lycurgus, being guardian to his nephew Eunomus, gave his laws to Sparta. For the story goes that some of the Spartans, disliking the severity of his laws and separating from the rest, quit the city entirely, and after being borne through a vast stretch of sea, made a vow to the gods to settle in the first land they should reach; for a longing came upon them for any land whatsoever. At last they made that part of Italy which lies near the Pomentine plains and they called the place where they first landed Foronia, in memory of their being borne through the sea, and built a temple to the goddess Foronia, to whom they had addressed their vows; this goddess, by the alteration of one letter, they now call Feronia. And some of them, setting out from thence, settled among the Sabines. It is for this reason, they say, that many of the habits of the Sabines are Spartan, particularly their fondness for war and their frugality and a severity in all the actions of their lives. But this is enough about the Sabine race.
Pythagoras, the Spartan, who was Olympic victor in the foot-race for the sixteenth Olympiad (in the third year of which Numa was made king), and that in his wanderings about Italy he made the acquaintance of Numa, and helped him arrange the government of the city, whence it came about that many Spartan customs were mingled with the Roman, as Pythagoras taught them to Numa. And at all events, Numa was of Sabine descent, and the Sabines will have it that they were colonists from Lacedaemon. Chronology, however, is hard to fix, and especially that which is based upon the names of victors in the Olympic games, the list of which is said to have been published at a late period by Hippias of Elis, who had no fully authoritative basis for his work. I shall therefore begin at a convenient point, and relate the noteworthy facts which I have found in the life of Numa.
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