Non-Hellenic Portion of the Latin Language. 501 



gorean Treatises have used the titles of imaginary Lucanians, had 

 it not been notorious that this philosophy had found reception 

 there, or had it been unusual for Lucanians to write Greek." 



If the fate of these colonies, whose foundation is supposed to 

 fall within the bounds of history, be so obscure and unknown, what 

 can be said of Arpi and Canusium, connected with Greece by my- 

 thology alone ? Strabo 1 infers from their remains, " that they 

 were the greatest of the Italiot cities." Yet Arpi is first men- 

 tioned in history as an Apulian city of no importance, of which 

 the Romans possessed themselves without difficulty. In confir- 

 mation of Strabo's authority, we have the strongest modern tes- 

 timony. 2 " Those writers, however, who have traced the circuits 

 of the Walls of Canusium from the remaining vestiges, state, that 

 they must have embraced a circumference of sixteen miles ;" and 

 antiquaries dwell with rapture on the elegance and beauty of the 

 Greek vases of Canosa, which (according to Millingen) in 

 point of size, numbers, and decoration, far surpass those disco- 

 vered in the tombs of any other ancient city, not even excepting 

 Nola." It is in vain for us to attempt to raise the veil, and to 

 form conjectures concerning the state of Italy, both central and 

 maritime, when a city of this magnitude and magnificence could 

 have been founded, and have flourished, in this apparently unfa- 

 vourable position. Assuredly the neighbouring mountaineers 

 must at one period have been in close connection with it, either 

 as subjects or allies. In either case, the civilisation of Canusium, 

 as well as of Arpi, must have produced ameliorating effects upon 

 the manners, laws, and language of the neighbouring aborigines. 

 It is probably to this period that a sound historian would be in- 

 clined to ascribe the deep impression of the Hellenic character, 

 which is visible in the language, laws, arts, and religion, of the 

 tribes of ancient Italy, and not to the intervention of some wan- 

 dering tribes or fraternities, who, under the name of Pelasgi, 

 came, we know not whence, and departed we know not whither. 



1 Strabo, \i. 248. 2 Cramer's Italy, vol. ii. p. 92. 



3 s 2 



