Paeligni
Template:Short description The Paeligni or Peligni were an Italic tribe who lived in the Valle Peligna, in what is now Abruzzo, central Italy.
History
The Paeligni are first mentioned as a member of a confederacy that included the Marsi, Marrucini, and Vestini, with which the Romans came into conflict in the Second Samnite War, 325 BC. Like other Oscan-Umbrian populations, they were governed by supreme magistrates known as meddices (singular meddix). Their religion included deities, such as the Dioscuri, Cerfum (a water god), and Anaceta (the Roman Angitia), a goddess associated with snakes.
On the submission of the Samnites, they all came into alliance with Rome in 305–302 BC,<ref>Livy ix. 45, x. 3, and Diod. xx. 101.</ref> the Paelignians having fought hard<ref>Diod. xx. 90.</ref> against even this degree of subjection. Each member of the confederacy entered the alliance with Rome as an independent unit, and in none was there any town or community politically separate from the tribe as a whole. Thus the Vestini issued coins of its own in the 3rd century; each of them appears in the list of the allies in the Social War. How purely Italic in sentiment these communities of the mountain country remained appears from the choice of the mountain fortress of Corfinium as the rebel capital. It was renamed Vitellio, the Oscan form of Italia, a name which appears, written in Oscan alphabet, on the coins struck there in 90 BC.<ref>R. S. Conway, The Italic Dialects, p. 216.</ref> The Paeligni were granted Roman citizenship after the Social War, and that was the beginning of the end of their national identity, as they began to adopt Roman culture and language.
Gentes of Paeligni origin
Language
Template:Infobox language The known Paeligni inscriptions show that the dialect spoken by these tribes was substantially the same from the northern boundary of the Frentani to some place in the upper Aternus valley not far from Amiternum, and that this dialect closely resembled the Oscan of Lucania and Samnium, though presenting some peculiarities of its own, which warrant, perhaps, the use of the name North Oscan. The clearest of these is the use of postpositions, as in Vestine Template:Lang, "Template:Lang"; Template:Lang, i.e. Template:Lang, "on to what lies before you". Others are the sibilation of consonantal Template:Lang and the assibilation of Template:Lang to some sound like that of English j (denoted by Template:Lang in the local variety of Latin alphabet), as in Template:Lang, "Template:Lang," i.e. "Template:Lang"; Template:Lang = Lat. Template:Lang; and the possible loss of d (in pronunciation) in the ablative, as in Template:Lang (i.e. Template:Lang).Template:Citation needed
However, the term Template:Lang exists in contrast the equivalent form Template:Lang found in another Paelignian inscription, perhaps indicating that these texts represent distinct varieties of the language. Various explanations have been offered to explain this discrepancy: the variation Template:Lang may reflect an archaism, or perhaps a hypercorrection intentionally utilized to distinguish the Paelignian text from Latin writings, which itself may have been motivated by potential anti-Roman sentiments.Template:Sfn The epitaph from which the aforementioned phrase is taken was found in Corfinio, the ancient Corfinium, and the perfect style of the Latin alphabet in which it is written shows that it cannot well be earlier than the last century BC: Template:Lang, Template:Langx The form Template:Lang (2nd plural perfect indicative) is closely parallel to the inflection of the same person in Sanskrit and of quite unique linguistic interest.Template:Citation needed
The name Paeligni may belong to the NO-class of ethnica (see Marrucini), but the difference that it has no vowel before the suffix suggests that it may rather be parallel with the suffix of Latin Template:Lang. If it has any connection with Latin paelex, "concubine", it is conceivable that it meant “halfbreeds” and was a name coined in contempt by the conquering Sabines, who turned the Template:Lang into the community of the Marrucini. But, when unsupported by direct evidence, even the most tempting etymology is an unsafe guide.<ref>For the history of the Paeligni after 90 BC see the references given in C.I.L. ix. 290 (Sulmona, esp. Ovid, e.g. Fasti, iv. 79, Anior. ii. 16; Florus ii. 9; Julius Caesar Template:Lang i. 15) and 296 (Corfinium, e.g. Diodorus Siculus xxxvii. 2, 4, Caes., BC, i. 15).</ref>
Paelignian and this group of inscriptions generally form the most important link in the chain of the Italic dialects, as without them the transition from Oscan to Umbrian would be completely lost. The unique collection of inscriptions and antiquities of Pentima and the museum at Sulmona were both created by Professor Antonio de Nino, whose devotion to the antiquities of his native district rescued every single Paelignian monument that we possess.Template:Citation needed
See also
References
Bibliography
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