Non-Hellenic Portion of the Latin Language. 513 
throughout a great part of the Peninsula, there seems to be a 
strong argument in favour of such a hypothesis. Considering, 
therefore, the Umbri as confessedly the most ancient people of 
Italy, I think we may safely ascribe to them the population of 
the central and mountainous parts of that country, as also the 
primitive form of its language, until the several communities of 
the Etruscans, Sabines, and Latins successively detached them- 
selves from the parent nation, and, from a combination of diffe- 
rent elements, adopted also different modifications of the same 
primeval tongue.” 
The history of the Veneti,' “ in the words of the same author, 
contains little that is worthy of notice, if we except the remark- 
able feature, of their being the sole people of Italy who not 
only offered no resistance to the ambitious projects of Rome, but 
even at an early period rendered that power an essential service, 
if it be true, as Potysius reports, that the Gauls, who had ta- 
ken Rome, were suddenly called away by an incursion of the 
Veneti into their territory (ii. 18.). The same author also ex- 
pressly states, that an alliance was afterwards formed between 
the Romans and Veneti (ii. 23,) a fact which is confirmed by 
Srrapo (vy. 216).” 
This state of security and peace would seem to have been 
very favourable to the prosperity of the Venetian nation. Ac- 
cording to an old geographer, they counted within their territo- 
ry fifty cities, and a population of a million and a half; “ when 
the Gauls had been subjugated, the Veneti do not appear to 
have manifested any unwillingness to constitute a part of the 
new province, an event which we may suppose to have happened 
not long after the second Punic War. Their territory from that 
period was included under the general denomination of Cisal- 
pine Gaul, and they were admitted to all the privileges which 
that province successively obtained.” 
1 Vol. i. p. 113. 
