274 



POINTS CONNECTED WITH THE EARLY HISTORY OF ROME. 



[1854. 



of the Bala limestone and the Lower Silurian of Russia and Nor- 

 way. Thus Plewocystilea is in lt 1 *i i ■ • t;il appearance like Hemi- 

 cuxin!tt s ; < 'omii r»r i/stitcSf&nd . lmygdaloct/stites > c\ose\y resemble 

 Sph.eron.ite8, whileour large supposed Agelacrirute is almost iden- 

 tical will i .1. Buchianus of the Geological Survey of England from 

 the Bala limestone. In its open ovarian aperture and in the form 

 of its pectinated rhombs, the genus Qlyptocystites is similar to 



lln! Russian Kcltiitu i iic ri nit at, 1 hi t widely different from that 



group of species of the latter genus found in the upper Silurian 

 rocks of Dudley. 



The Rata limestone seems' to be the equivalent of the upper 

 part of the Trenton formation, judging from the general aspect of 

 the Cystidea and the numbers in which they have been found. 

 There is thus near the base of the lower Silurian a Cystidean zone 

 which has been traced half round the world from Upper Canada 

 to St. Petersburg. 



That these two formations (the Bala limestone and the upper 

 part of the Trenton) lie in the same geological horizon, is further 

 borne out by other fossils. 



At KnockdoUian, in Ayrshire, Scotland, in neks which Pro- 

 fessor Sedgwick places in the lower Bala, and therefore below the 

 Bala limestone, great nnmbers of Maclurea magna are found to- 

 gether with Murchisonia angustata. At Aldeans (also lower Bala) 

 Macluera magna, and, it would appear, M. Loganii occur. On 

 the Ottawa both these fossils are found occupying the same posi- 

 tion immediately below the beds of Cystidea, as they do in 

 Europe. 



When we consider the restricted vertical range of M. Magna 

 everywhere in America, it is not likely that in Europe it should 

 be found in another formation, and it is therefore highly probable 

 that the Scottish Silurians in which it occurs are the equivalents 

 of the Chazy, Birdseye, Black river, and the lower part of the 

 Trenton.* 



On some Points connected with the Early History of Rome. 



By the Rev. E. St. John Parry, M.A., Professor of Classics, University 

 of Trinity College, Toronto. 



Continued from page 219. 

 On the Italian Languages. f 



In the former part of this paper I considered some questions 

 connected with the ethnology of Ancient Italy. We found the 

 area of the peninsula originally occupied by Umbrians and Opi- 

 cans, combined in different degrees with Pelasgians from the 

 north-east. In Etruria these Pelasgians had established them- 

 selves as a distinct nation, in possession of an empire which the 

 Umbrians could never throw off. In Latium, also, another family 

 of Pelasgians had settled themselves; while a mixed population 

 of Oscans and Pelasgians extended to the very south of Italy. 



* See British Palrcozoic Rocks, Sedgwick and M'Cov List of 

 Fossils, page 3ol ; and Quart. Jour. Geo. Soc, vol.. 7, page 176. 



t I» preparing this part of my paper for the Canadian Journal, I found 

 that it would be necessary, in order to do justice to the question, to enter 

 more fully into the details of the early Italian languages than I had been 

 able to do in a short lecture. The publication of these pages has been de- 

 layed in consequence of unavoidable engagements. 



Thus, independently of a Keltic substratum — which has been 

 with much reason assumed — we have this admixture or 

 juxtaposition of CJmbro-Oscan and Tyrrheno-Pelasgian tribes 

 ■■ 'ii-tituting the population of ancient Italy. At the early dawn 

 of history we saw foreign tribes gaining a footing in Italy on the 

 north and the south; on the north the Klia-tian tribe of Kasena 

 or proper Etruscans; on the south, the maritime colonies of an- 

 cient Greece. And at this period of Etruscan invasion, we found 

 a young state on the banks of the Tiber, which, together with 

 the rest of the Latin name, after a period of humiliation, suc- 

 ceeded in driving back the tide of Etruscan invasion beyond the 

 banks of the Tiber.f 



We now pass to a consideration of the languages of ancient 

 Italy, and of the earliest form of the Latin language, as an im- 

 mediate compound of Umbrian, Oscan, and Etruscan elements. 

 Latin is above all ancient languages a composite of many discor- 

 dant elements. The philologer traces in it remains of an old 

 Keltic element on the one hand, exhibiting itself in the Umbrian 

 language, as preserved to us through the Eugubine Tables. The 

 connection between these fragments and even our modern Keltic 

 languages is so striking, that Professor Newman has considered 

 himself justified in claiming the old Umbrian as a member of 

 the general Keltic stock, or rather, to use his own words, "in 

 extending the term Keltic so as to embrace this Italian tribe." 

 {Regal Rome, p. 17.) The connection between the old Latin 

 and the modern Gaelic is well shown by a comparison of their 

 vocabularies, as instituted by Newman. {Regal Rome, pp. 19, 20, 

 61, <fec.) An examination of the ancient L'mbrian and Sabine 

 words exhibits many striking points of resemblance to the cor- 

 responding words now in use in Welsh and Gaelic tribes: and 

 it is, moreover, stated, as the result of a careful study of the 

 affinities of these languages, that the words thus connected, while 

 occupying in Latin an isolated position, appear in the Gaelic 

 languages in the midst of cognate families. These considerations 

 tend to show us that in one element of the Latin language, de- 

 rived from the Umbrian population, we recognise a member of 

 the same widely-spread Keltic tongue, which is still in use in 

 Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. One point in Professor Newman's 

 classification may admit of a doubt. He considers the Sabine 

 language as generically identical with the Umbrian. Not doubt 

 the Sabine people were originally an Umbrian race, but yet we 

 find them, at a later period, certainly as distinct from the Umbrian 

 nation in general, as from the Oscans and Latins on the other 

 hand. These Sabine conquerors, by a not uncommon fate, re- 

 ceived their language from the conquered Ausonians ; and the 

 union of these two tribes is philologically represented by the Sa- 

 bello-Oscan language, as preserved in the Bantine Table, the 

 Cippus Abellanus, and the bronze tablet of Agnone. While, 

 then, we admit the original affinity of the Umbrian and Oscan 

 nations, we must be careful, at the same time, to recognize the 

 historical existence of a secondary nation, formed by the agglu- 

 tination of the Sabellians and the Oscans. It is a remarkable 

 fact that no strictly-called Sabine inscriptions exist: all the indi- 

 vidual words claimed as Sabine, with a very few exceptions, 

 being found in the Oscan inscriptions. These facts will justify 



t See Donaldson's " Varronianus," ch. 1, §10. In revising this part of 

 my Lecture. I have had the advantage of consulting the " Varronianus," 

 which contains abundant materials tor the discussion of the interesting 

 questions connected with the early nations and languages of Italy. It is 

 gratifying to find that the views which I had independently put forward, in 

 confirmation of Niebuhr's hypothesis of the relation of the Kasena to the 

 Gothic family, are maintained by such an authority as Dr. Donaldson. 



