found in various parts of ancient Umbria; but by far the most extensive and important are, as it is well known, the celebrated Iguvine or Eugubian tables, which were discovered in the year 1444, in the ruins of a temple at the foot of the Apennines, between Ugubbio and Cortona, in the duchy of Urbino. This was within the territory of Umbria. The tables contain inscriptions of considerable extent: there can be no room for doubt that these are in the Umbrian language:* they were published at length by Dempster in his great work entitled "Etruria Regalis," and they have employed at different times the laborious study of Italian antiquarians, among whom Passeri and Lanzi are the most distinguished. By these writers, however, very little was done towards the real elucidation of the inscriptions. The German investigators who have of late years undertaken the task, have been more successful. Dr. Lepsius has lately given a full account of these remains in a work "De Tabulis Eugubinis."+ Five of the seven inscriptions are in Tuscan letters, and the two others, which are the longest, in Latin. The Tuscan characters, which, except on coins, have not been elsewhere found in inscriptions in the Umbrian language, are written from right to left. It was supposed by Passeri that the inscriptions in Tuscan letters are in a different language from that which is written on the tables in Latin characters; but this opinion was rejected by Lanzi, who observed that the same proper names occur in both kinds; and on a later examination it has been proved that the same language has been expressed in both characters with scarcely any difference that can even be supposed to be a variety of dialect. The Tuscan inscriptions were thought by Dr. Lepsius and others to be more ancient than the Latin; but to this opinion it has been objected, that both characters were used coevally, as it appears from coins. The inscriptions may have been written at different times and by different engravers, but

* Lanzi says, "Io le chiamo Umbre dal luogo del ritrovamento." There can be no doubt of the fact, since inscriptions apparently in the same language, as well as coins, have been found in many places within the Umbrian country. They are not Tuscan or Latin, and must be considered as Umbrian.

+ See also Dr. Grotefend's work, entitled "Rudimenta Linguæ Umbricæ ex Inscriptionibus Antiquis enodata."

Lanzi, Saggio di Lingua Etrusca.

VOL. III.

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their age has not been ascertained. Grotefend, however, supposes one set to belong to the third century of Rome, and another to the sixth. The inscriptions have been carefully collated, and fortunately present so many coincidences, whole passages of inscriptions written in one character consisting of the same words as those written in the other, as to have afforded an opportunity of elucidating the peculiarities of both, and of ascertaining facts of great interest in regard to the Umbrian language, and its relation to other Italian dialects. These results are admirably expressed by Professor Otfried Müller. He observes that the Italian antiquarians who supposed the Umbrian idiom to have been nearly allied to the Etruscan, or even took the Iguvine inscriptions as specimens of the Tuscan language, were greatly mistaken.* The orthographical systems of the two languages differed widely. The Tuscan has no mute consonants of the soft or middle class; only tenues and aspirates. The Umbrian has the soft mutes, and scarcely any trace of aspirates. The whole aspect and construction of words differ. The Umbrian abounds with vowels; the Tuscan appears to have been of harsh and rough pronunciation, abounding with aspirates and double consonants, and having few vowels. The Umbrian words often terminate in r and the Tuscan in s, and Müller says that he can from this circumstance pronounce, without hesitation, an inscription discovered at Falerii to be Umbrian and not Tuscan.+ The comparison of these languages is, however, as yet very defective in evidence, since but a small number of words have been ascertained in genuine Etruscan inscriptions which have been identified with the words of the Iguvine tables. A much nearer relation is discoverable between the Umbrian and Latin languages. The Umbrian resembles Latin in the whole system of sounds and letters, and the analogy is by no means confined to the un-greek or barbaric part of the Latin language. The name of Jupiter is written frequently in the Tusco-Umbrian inscriptions Jufe, Jufe patre, Jupater; and it is very remarkable that an epithet Krapufi or Grabovi,‡ connected frequently * Even Lanzi says, "Il loro dialetto è vicinissimo ad Etrusco." (Saggio, tom. iii. p. 638.)

The words are. "Lerpirior santir pior duir for forfer dertier dierir votir farer vef naratu vef poni sirtir."

Krapufi in the Tusco-Umbrian tables, corresponds with Grabovi in the Latino

with the name Jufe or Jove, apparently in a sort of litany, is also joined in many instances with Di or Dei. From this it is scarcely doubtful, that as Zeus and Aids are only variations of case in the same name, and Jupiter and Dialis are connected in Latin, so Jufe and Di are related in the Umbrian. Of the other gods of Latium only the name of Mars is found in these Umbrian records; it is written Marte, Marti. The other names of gods or epithets which occur together in the fourth table, Trebe Jufie, Marte Krapufi, Phise Sasi, Fuphiune Krapufi, Tephre Jufie, Marti Hurse, Hunte Serphi, Serphe Marti, Serphie Serphe Marties, indicate, in the opinion of Otfried Müller, that the Umbrian superstition had assumed a different developement, and that the first elements only were common to it and that of Rome. The Sabine god Sancus seems to be named in Umbrian Sansie; and in the words piquier Martier, we may conjecture the woodpecker of Mars venerated by the Sabines, and according to Dionysius likewise by the ancient Aborigines. Some names of numbers appear to have been made out with sufficient evidence, as tufa or duva for duo, and triia for tria. Etre seems to represent the Greek Tεpos and Latin alter; tertie indicates the ordinal numbers to have been formed as in Latin. Petur seems to be quatuor, as in Oscan. If these numerals and names of gods are rightly interpreted we obtain next the names of victims; for in frequently recurring sentences the words coming before the names of gods joined with the term for three, may be inferred with great probability to indicate victims; and the very words used, buph, fitluph, siph, aphruph, purca, appear to be the usual Umbrian modification of bos, vitulus, sus, aper, porca. Now if the Latin Umbrian. It must be observed, that in consequence of the total want of soft or middle mute consonants in the Etruscan alphabet, as well as of the vowel o, the orthography of the Iguvine tables, written in Etruscan letters, which may be termed the Tusco-Umbrian tables, has a very different appearance from that of the two Latino-Umbrian tables. The following specimen will point out the nature of the difference:

Tusco-Umbrian: Fukukum iufiu pune ufeph phurphath.
Latino-Umbrian: Vocucom ioviu ponne ovi furfant.

The term Tusco-Umbrian distinguishes the inscriptions in the Umbrian language written in Tuscan letters, and Latino-Umbrian those in the same language expressed in Latin letters.

names of domestic animals are, as it has been observed, also Siculian, a connection between the Umbrian and Siculian languages seems to be here discovered. The flexions of Umbrian words, u or o marking the masculine and a the feminine, also coincide with what we know of the Siculian. It appears probable from the word Claverniur, the first word of a newlydiscovered document, and from the repeated form frater Atieriur, Lerperior at the beginning of the Faliscian table, that UR, OR, was a principal ending of the nominative in the Umbrian language, as among the Spartans and Eleans. The Umbrians interchanged it with s, as did the Oscan and some Greek dialects. This Umbrian r, perhaps originally rs, in distinction with the feminine a, marked the masculine gender. Thus in other old languages, some rejected the r, others the s, as we find by comparing the old Italic with the Slavish, the Gothic and some German idioms. In the Umbrian m marks the accusative, oм the masculine, AM the feminine: a third declension has EM and IM. In the Latin tables r, in the TuscoUmbrian s, always makes the genitive, even in such words as poplu, popler. The dative appears to have, as in old Latin, a double ending, in e and i. The accusative plural seems to be in ph, or merely a vowel, as triph aphruph ruphru, for “tres apros rubros ;" "tre purka ruphra," tres porcas rubras. In the ablative the Oscan d never appears, but instead of it the additional syllable per, which Müller compares with the Greek py. In verbs the imperative in atu, itu, eitu are very remarkable. The forms fust, facust, benust, dersicust, correspond precisely with the Oscan fust, fefacust, representing as it appears the perfect conjunctive; and having for their plurals furent, facurent, benurent, dersicurent. We have here clearly the Latin fuerint, fecerint. Hence the use of the r as indicating the mood, which is unknown in Greek, was common to the Umbrian with the Latin. The use of r to form the passive is also Umbrian. The seventh Eugubian table concludes with pusei subra serehto est, evidently supra scriptum est. We also find porsei subra screhitor, which can hardly mean anything else than sicut supra scribitur. The frequent adoption of the letter r, or the Rhotacism, as Müller terms it, of the Umbrian language, affords ground for conjec

φιν.

ture that the Reatine Aborigines, who mixed with the old Siculians, formed the Latin people, and who have been supposed to have introduced into the Latin language the barbaric or un-greek element, were of an Umbrian stock, as we find them declared by historians to have been. Müller observes that words belonging to the barbaric portion of the Latin language abound in the Eugubian tables. He admits, however, that the dialect of these tables displays very considerable analogies to the Greek. The idiom of the Umbrian people therefore cannot be ranked among barbaric languages. How then can it be maintained that it was through this medium that the barbaric element was infused into the Latin? Later researches into the structure of the Umbrian language have confirmed the opinion, that this language and the Latin and Oscan are, properly so termed, cognate idioms. In the elaborate work of Dr. Grotefend on the Iguvine tables, it has been satisfactorily proved that the Latin and the Umbrian especially, not only have a very extensive vocabulary in common, but likewise that they abound in analogous grammatical forms, both in verbs and nouns. We may therefore venture to consider these idioms of the old Italic races nearly in the light of kindred dialects, derived from one ancient language, whether that language was a primitive one or formed from the mixture of different elements.*

SECTION VII. Of the opinions generally maintained respecting the Origin of the Italic Nations.-Relations of the old Italic Race.

The opinion maintained by most learned men, from Frèret and Gibbon to Niebuhr and Otfried Müller, respecting the origin of the Italic languages, and the elements of which they were composed, have certainly derived no support from the investigation of which I have endeavoured to state the principal results. It was supposed by Niebuhr that the Oscan language had furnished the barbaric element of the Latin. This opinion seems to have been refuted by the discovery that the Oscan

* The Etruscan language is here excepted. On that some observations will be offered in a succeeding section.