Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities

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§ 1.9.1 This city, mistress of the whole earth and sea, which the Romans now inhabit, is said to have had as its earliest occupants the barbarian Sicels, a native race. As to the condition of the place before their time, whether it was occupied by others or uninhabited, none can certainly say. But some time later the Aborigines gained possession of it, having taken it from the occupants after a long war.
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§ 1.9.2 These people had previously lived on the mountains in unwalled villages and scattered groups; but when the Pelasgians, with whom some other Greeks had united, assisted them in the war against their neighbours, they drove the Sicels out of this place, walled in many towns, and contrived to subjugate all the country that lies between the two rivers, the Liris and the Tiber. These rivers spring from the foot of the Apennine mountains, the range by which all Italy is divided into two parts throughout its length, and at points about eight hundred stades from one another discharge themselves into the Tyrrhenian sea, the Tiber to the north, near the city of Ostia, and the Liris to the south, as it flows by Minturnae, both these cities being Roman colonies.
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§ 1.9.3 And these people remained in this same place of abode, both never afterwards driven out by any others; but, although they continued to be one and the same people, their name was twice changed. Till the time of the Trojan War they preserved their ancient name of Aborigines; but under Latinus, their king, who reigned at the time of that war, they began to be called Latins,
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§ 1.9.4 and when Romulus founded the city named after himself sixteen generations after the taking of Troy, they took the name which they now bear. And in the course of time they contrived to raise themselves from the smallest nation to the greatest and from the most obscure to the most illustrious, not only by their humane reception of those who sought a home among them, but also by sharing the rights of citizenship with all who had been conquered by them in war after a brave resistance, by permitting all the slaves, too, who were manumitted among them to become citizens, and by disdaining no condition of men from whom the commonwealth might reap an advantage, but above everything else by their form of government, which they fashioned out of their many experiences, always extracting something useful from every occasion.
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§ 1.10.1 There are some who affirm that the Aborigines, from whom the Romans are originally descended, were natives of Italy, a stock which came into being spontaneously (I call Italy all that peninsula which is bounded by the Ionian Sea and the Tyrrhenian sea and, thirdly, by the Alps on the landward side); and these authors say that they were first called Aborigines because they were the founders of the families of their descendants, or, as we should call them, genearchai or protogonoi.
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§ 1.10.2 Others claim that certain vagabonds without house or home, coming together out of many places, met one another there by chance and took up their abode in the fastnesses, living by robbery and grazing their herds. And these writers change their name, also, to one more suitable to their condition, calling them Aberrigenes, to show that they were wanderers; indeed, according to these, the race of the Aborigines would seem to be no different from those the ancients called Leleges; for this is the name they generally gave to the homeless and mixed peoples who had no fixed abode which they could call their country.
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§ 1.10.3 Still others have a story to the effect that they were colonists sent out by those Ligurians who are neighbours of the Umbrians. For the Ligurians inhabit not only many parts of Italy but some parts of Gaul as well, but which of these lands is their native country is not known, since nothing certain is said of them further.
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§ 1.11.1 But the most learned of the Roman historians, among whom is Porcius Cato, who compiled with the greatest care the “origins” of the Italian cities, Gaius Sempronius and a great many others, say that they were Greeks, part of those who once dwelt in Achaia, and that they migrated many generations before the Trojan War. But they do not go on to indicate either the Greek tribe to which they belonged or the city from which they removed, or the date or the leader of the colony, or as the result of what turns of fortune they left their mother country; and although they are following a Greek legend, they have cited no Greek historian as their authority. It is uncertain, therefore, what the truth of the matter is. But if what they say is true, the Aborigines can be a colony of no other people but of those who are now called Arcadians;
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§ 1.11.2 for these were the first of all the Greeks to cross the Ionian Sea, under the leadership of Oinotrus, the son of Lycaon, and to settle in Italy. This Oinotrus was the fifth from Aezeius and Phoroneus, who were the first kings in the Peloponnesus. For Niobe was the daughter of Phoroneus, and Pelasgus was the son of Niobe and Zeus, it is said; Lycaon was the son of Aezeius and Deianira was the daughter of Lycaon; Deianira and Pelasgus were the parents of another Lycaon, whose son Oinotrus was born seventeen generations before the Trojan expedition. This, then, was the time when the Greeks sent the colony into Italy.
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§ 1.11.3 Oinotrus left Greece because he was dissatisfied with his portion of his father's land; for, as Lycaon had twenty-two sons, it was necessary to divide Arcadia into as many shares. For this reason Oinotrus left the Peloponnesus, prepared a fleet, and crossed the Ionian Sea with Peucetius, one of his brothers. They were accompanied by many of their own people — for this nation is said to have been very populous in early times — and by as many other Greeks as had less land than was sufficient for them.
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§ 1.11.4 Peucetius landed his people above the Iapygian Promontory, which was the first part of Italy they made, and settled there; and from him the inhabitants of this region were called Peucetians. But Oinotrus with the greater part of the expedition came into the other sea that washes the western regions along the coast of Italy; it was then called the Ausonian Sea, from the Ausonians who dwelt beside it, but after the Tyrrhenians became masters at sea its name was changed to that which it now bears.
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§ 1.12.1 And finding there much land suitable for pasturage and much for tillage, but for the most part unoccupied, and even that which was inhabited not thickly populated, he cleared some of it of the barbarians and built small towns contiguous to one another on the mountains, which was the customary manner of habitation in use among the ancients. And all the land he occupied, which was very extensive, was called Oinotria, and all the people under his command Oinotrians, which was the third name they had borne. For in the reign of Aezeius they were called Aezeians, when Lycaon succeeded to the rule, Lycaonians, and after Oinotrus led them into Italy they were for a while called Oinotrians.
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§ 1.12.2 What I say is supported by the testimony of Sophocles, the tragic poet, in his drama entitled Triptolemus; for he there represents Demeter as informing Triptolemus how large a tract of land he would have to travel over while sowing it with the seeds she had given him. For, after first referring to the eastern part of Italy, which reaches from the Iapygian Promontory to the Sicilian Strait, and then touching upon Sicily on the opposite side, she returns again to the western part of Italy and enumerates the most important nations that inhabit this coast, beginning with the settlement of the Oinotrians. But it is enough to quote merely the iambics in which he says: “And after this, — first, then, upon the right, Oinotria wide-outstretched and Tyrrhene Gulf, And next the Ligurian land shall welcome thee.”
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§ 1.12.3 And Antiochus of Syracuse, a very early historian, in his account of the settlement of Italy, when enumerating the most ancient inhabitants in the order in which each of them held possession of any part of it, says that the first who are reported to have inhabited that country are the Oinotrians. His words are these: “ Antiochus, the son of Xenophanes, wrote this account of Italy, which comprises all that is most credible and certain out of the ancient tales; this country, which is now called Italy, was formerly possessed by the Oinotrians.” Then he relates in what manner they were governed and says that in the course of time Italus came to be their king, after whom they were named Italians; that this man was succeeded by Morges, after whom they were called Morgetes, and that Sicelus, being received as a guest by Morges and setting up a kingdom for himself, divided the nation. After which he adds these words: “Thus those who had been Oinotrians became Sicels, Morgetes and Italians.”
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§ 1.13.1 Now let me also show the origin of the Oinotrian race, offering as my witness another of the early historians, Pherecydes of Athens, who was a genealogist inferior to none. He thus expresses himself concerning the kings of Arcadia: “Of Pelasgus and Deianira was born Lycaon; this man married Cyllene, a Naiad nymph, after whom Mount Cyllene is named.” Then, having given an account of their children and of the places each of them inhabited, he mentions Oinotrus and Peucetius, in these words: “And Oinotrus, after whom are named the Oinotrians who live in Italy, and Peucetius, after whom are named the Peucetians who live on the Ionian Sea.”
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§ 1.13.2 Such, then, are the accounts given by the ancient poets and writers of legends concerning the places of abode and the origin of the Oinotrians; and on their authority I assume that if the Aborigines were in reality a Greek nation, according to the opinion of Cato, Sempronius and many others, they were descendants of these Oinotrians. For I find that the Pelasgians and Cretans and the other nations that lived in Italy came thither afterwards; nor can I discover that any other expedition more ancient than this came from Greece to the western parts of Europe.
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§ 1.13.3 I am of the opinion that the Oinotrians, besides making themselves masters of many other regions in Italy, some of which they found unoccupied and others but thinly inhabited, also seized a portion of the country of the Umbrians, and that they were called Aborigines from their dwelling on the mountains (for it is characteristic of the Arcadians to be fond of the mountains), in the same manner as at Athens some are called Hyperakriori, and others Paralioi.
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§ 1.13.4 But if any are naturally slow in giving credit to accounts of ancient matters without due examination, let them be slow also in believing the Aborigines to be Ligurians, Umbrians, or any other barbarians, and let them suspend their judgment till they have heard what remains to be told and then determine which opinion out of all is the most probable.
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§ 1.14.1 Of the cities first inhabited by the Aborigines few remained in my day; the greatest part of them, having been laid waste both by wars and other calamities, are abandoned. These cities were in the Reatine territory, not far from the Apennine mountains, as Terentius Varro writes in his Antiquities, the nearest being one day's journey distant from Rome. I shall enumerate the most celebrated of them, following his account.
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§ 1.14.2 Palatium, twenty-five stades distant from Reate (a city that was still inhabited by Romans down to my time), near the Quintian Way. Tribula, about sixty stades from Reate and standing upon a low hill. Suesbula, at the same distance from Tribula, near the Ceraunian Mountains. Suna, a famous city forty stades from Suesbula; in it there is a very ancient temple of Mars.
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§ 1.14.3 Mefula, about thirty stades from Suna; its ruins and traces of its walls are pointed out. Orvinium, forty stades from Mefula, a city as famous and large as any in that region; for the foundations of its walls are still to be seen and some tombs of venerable antiquity, as well as the circuits of burying-places extending over lofty mounds; and there is also an ancient temple of Minerva built on the summit.
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§ 1.14.4 At the distance of eighty stades from Reate, as one goes along the Curian Way past Mount Coretus, stood Corsula, a town but recently destroyed. There is also pointed out an island, called Issa, surrounded by a lake; the Aborigines are said to have lived on this island without any artificial fortification, relying on the marshy waters of the lake instead of walls. Near Issa is Maruvium, situated on an arm of the same lake and distant forty stades from what they call the Septem Aquae.
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§ 1.14.5 Again, as one goes from Reate by the road towards the Listine district, there is Batia, thirty stades distant; then Tiora, called Matiene, at a distance of three hundred stades. In this city, they say, there was a very ancient oracle of Mars, the nature of which was similar to that of the oracle which legend says once existed at Dodona; only there a pigeon was said to prophesy, sitting on a sacred oak, whereas among the Aborigines a heaven-sent bird, which they call picus and the Greeks dryokolaptes, appearing on a pillar of wood, did the same.
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§ 1.14.6 Twenty-four stades from the afore-mentioned city stood Lista, the mother-city of the Aborigines, which at a still earlier time the Sabines had captured by a surprise attack, having set out against it from Amiternum by night. Those who survived the taking of the place, after being received by the Reatines, made many attempts to retake their former home, but being unable to do so, they consecrated the country to the gods, as if it were still their own, invoking curses against those who should enjoy the fruits of it.
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§ 1.15.1 Seventy stades from Reate stood Cutilia, a famous city, beside a mountain. Not far from it there is a lake, four hundred feet in diameter, filled by everflowing natural springs and, it is said, bottomless. This lake, as having something divine about it, the inhabitants of the country look upon as sacred to Victory; and surrounding it with a palisade, so that no one may approach the water, they keep it inviolate; except that at certain times each year those whose sacred office it is go to the little island in the lake and perform the sacrifices required by custom.
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§ 1.15.2 This island is about fifty feet in diameter and rises not more than a foot above the water; it is not fixed, and floats about in any direction, according to as the wind gently wafts it from one place to another. An herb grows on the island like the flowering rush and also certain small shrubs, a phenomenon which to those who are unacquainted with the works of Nature seems unaccountable and a marvel second to none.
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§ 1.16.1 The Aborigines are said to have settled first in these places after they had driven out the Umbrians. And making excursions from there, they warred not only upon the barbarians in general but particularly upon the Sicels, their neighbours, in order to dispossess them of their lands. First, a sacred band of young men went forth, consisting of a few who were sent out by their parents to seek a livelihood, according to a custom which I know many barbarians and Greeks have followed.
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§ 1.16.2 For whenever the population of any of their cities increased to such a degree that the produce of their lands no longer sufficed for them all, or the earth, injured by unseasonable changes of the weather, brought forth her fruits in less abundance than usual, or any other occurrence of like nature, either good or bad, introduced a necessity of lessening their numbers, they would dedicate to some god or other all the men born within a certain year, and providing them with arms, would send them out of their country. If, indeed, this was done by way of thanksgiving for populousness or for victory in war, they would first offer the usual sacrifices and then send forth their colonies under happy auspices; but if, having incurred the wrath of Heaven, they were seeking deliverance from the evils that beset them, they would perform much the same ceremony, but sorrowfully and begging forgiveness of the youths they were sending away.
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§ 1.16.3 And those who departed, feeling that henceforth they would have no share in the land of their fathers but must acquire another, looked upon any land that received them in friendship or that they conquered in war as their country. And the god to whom they had been dedicated when they were sent out seemed generally to assist them and to prosper the colonies beyond all human expectation.
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§ 1.16.4 In pursuance, therefore, of this custom some of the Aborigines also at that time, as their places were growing very populous (for they would not put any of their children to death, looking on this as one of the greatest of crimes), dedicated to some god or other the offspring of a certain year and when these children were grown to be men they sent them out of their country as colonists; and they, after leaving their own land, were continually plundering the Sicels.
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§ 1.16.5 And as soon as they became masters of any places in the enemy's country the rest of the Aborigines, also, who needed lands now attacked each of them their neighbours with greater security and built various cities, some of which are inhabited to this day — Antemnae, Tellenae, Ficulea, which is near the Corniculan mountains, as they are called, and Tibur, where a quarter of the city is even to this day called the Sicel quarter; and of all their neighbours they harassed the Sicels most. From these quarrels there arose a general war between the nations more important than any that had occurred previously in Italy, and it went on extending over a long period of time.
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§ 1.17.1 Afterwards some of the Pelasgians who inhabited Thessaly, as it is now called, being obliged to leave their country, settled among the Aborigines and jointly with them made war upon the Sicels. It is possible that the Aborigines received them partly in the hope of gaining their assistance, but I believe it was chiefly on account of their kinship;
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§ 1.17.2 for the Pelasgians, too, were a Greek nation originally from the Peloponnesus. They were unfortunate in many ways but particularly in wandering much and in having no fixed abode. For they first lived in the neighbourhood of the Achaean Argos, as it is now called, being natives of the country, according to most accounts. They received their name originally from Pelasgus, their king.
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§ 1.17.3 Pelasgus was the son of Zeus, it is said, and of Niobe the daughter of Phoroneus, who, as the legend goes, was the first mortal woman Zeus had knowledge of. In the sixth generation afterwards, leaving the Peloponnesus, they removed to the country which was then called Haemonia and now Thessaly. The leaders of the colony were Achaeus, Phthius and Pelasgus, the sons of Larisa and Poseidon. When they arrived in Haemonia they drove out the barbarian inhabitants and divided the country into three parts, calling them, after the names of their leaders, Phthiotis, Achaia and Pelasgiotis. After they had remained there five generations, during which they attained to the greatest prosperity while enjoying the produce of the most fertile plains in Thessaly, about the sixth generation they were driven out of it by the Curetes and Leleges, who are now called Aitolians and Locrians, and by many others who lived near Parnassus, their enemies being commanded by Deucalion, the son of Prometheus and Clymene, the daughter of Oceanus.
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§ 1.18.1 And dispersing themselves in their flight, some went to Crete, others occupied some of the islands called the Cyclades, some settled in the region called Hestiaeotis near Olympus and Ossa, others crossed into Boeotia, Phocis and Euboea; and some, passing over into Asia, occupied many places on the coast along the Hellespont and many of the adjacent islands, particularly the one now called Lesbos, uniting with those who composed the first colony that was sent thither from Greece under Macar, the son of Crinacus.
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§ 1.18.2 But the greater part of them, turning inland, took refuge among the inhabitants of Dodona, their kinsmen, against whom, as a sacred people, none would make war; and there they remained for a reasonable time. But when they perceived they were growing burdensome to their hosts, since the land could not support them all, they left it in obedience to an oracle that commanded them to sail to Italy, which was then called Saturnia.
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§ 1.18.3 And having prepared a great many ships they set out to cross the Ionian Sea, endeavouring to reach the nearest parts of Italy. But as the wind was in the south and they were unacquainted with those regions, they were carried too far out to sea and landed at one of the mouths of the Po called the Spinetic mouth. In that very place they left their ships and such of their people as were least able to bear hardships, placing a guard over the ships, to the end that, if their affairs did not prosper, they might be sure of a retreat.
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§ 1.18.4 Those who were left behind there surrounded their camp with a wall and brought in plenty of provisions in their ships; and when their affairs seemed to prosper satisfactorily, they built a city and called it by the same name as the mouth of the river. These people attained to a greater degree of prosperity than any others who dwelt on the Ionian Sea; for they had the mastery at sea for a long time, and out of their revenues from the sea they used to send tithes to the god at Delphi, which were among the most magnificent sent by any people.
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§ 1.18.5 But later, when the barbarians in the neighbourhood made war upon them in great numbers, they deserted the city; and these barbarians in the course of time were driven out by the Romans. So perished that part of the Pelasgians that was left at Spina.
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§ 1.19.1 Those, however, who had turned inland crossed the mountainous part of Italy and came to the territory of the Umbrians who were neighbours to the Aborigines. (The Umbrians inhabited a great many other part of Italy also and were an exceeding great and ancient people.) At first the Pelasgians made themselves masters of the lands where they first settled and took some of the small towns belonging to the Umbrians. But when a great army came together against them, they were terrified at the number of their enemies and betook themselves to the country of the Aborigines.
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§ 1.19.2 And these, seeing fit to treat them as enemies, made haste to assemble out of the places nearest at hand, in order to drive them out of the country. But the Pelasgians luckily chanced to be encamped at that time near Cutilia, a city of the Aborigines hard by the sacred lake, and observing the little island circling round in it and learning from the captives they had taken in the fields the name of the inhabitants, they concluded that their oracle was now fulfilled. For this oracle, which had been delivered to them in Dodona and which Lucius Mallius, no obscure man, says he himself saw engraved in ancient characters upon one of the tripods standing in the precinct of Zeus, was as follows:"Fare forth the Sicels' Saturnian land to seek, Aborigines' Cotyle, too, where floats an isle; With these men mingling, to Phoebus send a tithe, And heads to Cronus' son, and send to the sire a man."
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§ 1.20.1 When, therefore, the Aborigines advanced with a numerous army, the Pelasgians approached unarmed with olive branches in their hands, and telling them of their own fortunes, begged that they would receive them in a friendly manner to dwell with them, assuring them that they would not be troublesome, since Heaven itself was guiding them into this one particular country according to the oracle, which they explained to them.
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§ 1.20.2 When the Aborigines heard this, they resolved to obey the oracle and to gain these Greeks as allies against their barbarian enemies, for they were hard pressed by their war with the Sicels. They accordingly made a treaty with the Pelasgians and assigned to them some of their own lands that lay near the sacred lake; the greater part of these were marshy and are still called Velia, in accordance with the ancient form of their language.
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§ 1.20.3 For it was the custom of the ancient Greeks generally to place before those words that began with a vowel the syllable ου, written with one letter (this was like a gamma, formed by two oblique lines joined to one upright line), as ϝελένη, ϝάναξ, ϝοῖκος, ϝέαρ and many such words.
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§ 1.20.4 Afterwards, a considerable part of the Pelasgians, as the land was not sufficient to support them all, prevailed on the Aborigines to join them in an expedition against the Umbrians, and marching forth, they suddenly fell upon and captured Croton, a rich and large city of theirs. And using this place as a stronghold and fortress against the Umbrians, since it was sufficiently fortified as a place of defence in time of war and had fertile pastures lying round it, they made themselves masters also of a great many other places and with great zeal assisted the Aborigines in the war they were still engaged in against the Sicels, till they drove them out of their country.
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§ 1.20.5 And the Pelasgians in common with the Aborigines settled many cities, some of which had been previously inhabited by the Sicels and others which they built themselves; among these are Caere, then called Agylla, and Pisae, Saturnia, Alsium and some others, of which they were in the course of time dispossessed by the Tyrrhenians.
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§ 1.21.1 But Falerii and Fescennium were even down to my day inhabited by Romans and preserved some small remains of the Pelasgian nation, though they had earlier belonged to the Sicels. In these cities there survived for a very long time many of the ancient customs formerly in use among the Greeks, such as the fashion of their arms of war, like Argolic bucklers and spears; and whenever they sent out an army beyond their borders, either to begin a war or to resist an invasion, certain holy men, unarmed, went ahead of the rest bearing the terms of peace; similar, also, were the structure of their temples, the images of their gods, their purifications and sacrifices and many other things of that nature.
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§ 1.21.2 But the most conspicuous monument which shows that those people who drove out the Sicels once lived at Argos in the temple of Juno at Falerii, built in the same fashion as the one at Argos; here, too, the manner of the sacrificial ceremonies was similar, holy women served the sacred precinct, and an unmarried girl, called the canephorus or “basket-bearer,” performed the initial rites of the sacrifices, and there were choruses of virgins who praised the goddess in the songs of their country.
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§ 1.21.3 These people also possessed themselves of no inconsiderable part of the Campanian plains, as they are called, which afford not only very fertile pasturage but most pleasing prospects as well, having driven the Auronissi, a barbarous nation, out of part of them. There they built various other cities and also Larisa, a camp they named after their mother-city in the Peloponnesus.
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§ 1.21.4 Some of these cities were standing even to my day, having often changed their inhabitants. But Larisa has been long deserted and shows to the people of today no other sign of its ever having been inhabited but its name, and even this is not generally known. It was not far from the place called Forum Popilii. They also occupied a great many other places, both on the coast and in the interior, which they had taken from the Sicels.
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§ 1.22.1 The Sicels, being warred upon by both the Pelasgians and the Aborigines, found themselves incapable of making resistance any longer, and so, taking with them their wives and children and such of their possessions as were any other gold or silver, they abandoned all their country to these foes. Then, turning their course southward through the mountains, they proceeded through all the lower part of Italy, and being driven away from every place, they at last prepared rafts at the Strait and, watching for a downward current, passed over from Italy to the adjacent island.
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§ 1.22.2 It was then occupied by the Sicanians, an Iberian nation, who, fleeing from the Ligurians, had but lately settled there and had caused the island, previously named Trinacria, from its triangular shape, to be called Sicania, after themselves. There were very few inhabitants in it for so large an island, and the greater part of it was as yet unoccupied. Accordingly, when the Sicels landed there they first settled in the western parts and afterwards in several others; and from these people the island began to be called Sicily.
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§ 1.22.3 In this manner the Sicel nation left Italy, according to Hellanicus of Lesbos, in the third generation before the Trojan War, and in the twenty-sixth year of the priesthood of Alcyone at Argos. But he says that two Italian expeditions passed over into Sicily, the first consisting of the Elymians, who had been driven out of their country by the Oinotrians, and the second, five years later, of the Ausonians, who fled from the Iapygians. As king of the latter group he names Sicelus, from whom both the people and the island got their name.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.22.4
§ 1.22.4 But according to Philistus of Syracuse the date of the crossing was the eightieth year before the Trojan War and the people who passed over from Italy were neither Ausonians nor Elymians, but Ligurians, whose leader was Sicelus; this Sicelus, he says, was the son of Italus and in his reign the people were called Sicels,
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.22.5
§ 1.22.5 and he adds that these Ligurians had been driven out of their country by the Umbrians and Pelasgians. Antiochus of Syracuse does not give the date of the crossing, but says the people who migrated were the Sicels, who had been forced to leave by the Oinotrians and Opicans, and that they chose Straton as leader of the colony. But Thucydides writes that the people who left Italy were the Sicels and those who drove them out the Opicans, and that the date was many years after the Trojan War. Such, then, are the reports given by credible authorities concerning the Sicels who changed their abode from Italy to Sicily.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.23.1
§ 1.23.1 The Pelasgians, after conquering a large and fertile region, taking over many towns and building others, made great and rapid progress, becoming populous, rich and in every way prosperous. Nevertheless, they did not long enjoy their prosperity, but at the moment when they seemed to all the world to be in the most flourishing condition they were visited by divine wrath, and some of them were destroyed by calamities inflicted by the hand of Heaven, others by their barbarian neighbours; but the greatest part of them were again dispersed through Greece and the country of the barbarians (concerning whom, if I attempted to give a particular account, it would make a very long story), though some few of them remained in Italy through the care of the Aborigines.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.23.2
§ 1.23.2 The first cause of the desolation of their cities seemed to be a drought which laid waste the land, when neither any fruit remained on the trees till it was ripe, but dropped while still green, nor did such of the seed corn as sent up shoots and flowered stand for the usual period till the ear was ripe, nor did sufficient grass grow for the cattle; and of the waters some were no longer fit to drink, others shrank during the summer, and others were totally dried up.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.23.3
§ 1.23.3 And like misfortunes attended the offspring both of cattle and of women. For they were either abortive or died at birth, some by their death destroying also those that bore them; and if any got safely past the danger of the delivery, they were either maimed or defective or, being injured by some other accident, were not fit to be reared. The rest of the people, also, particularly those in the prime of life, were afflicted with many unusual diseases and uncommon deaths.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.23.4
§ 1.23.4 But when they asked the oracle what god or divinity they had offended to be thus afflicted and by what means they might hope for relief, the god replied that, although they had obtained what they desired, they had neglected to pay what they had promised, and that the things of greatest value were still due from them.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.23.5
§ 1.23.5 For the Pelasgians in a time of general scarcity in the land had vowed to offer to Jupiter, Apollo and the Cabeiri tithes of all their future increase; but when their prayer had been answered, they set apart and offered to the gods the promised portion of all their fruits and cattle only, as if their vow had related to them alone. This is the account related by Myrsilus of Lesbos, who uses almost the same words as I do now, except that he does not call the people Pelasgians, but Tyrrhenians, of which I shall give the reason a little later.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.24.1
§ 1.24.1 When they heard the oracle which was brought to them, they were at a loss to guess the meaning of the message. While they were in this perplexity, one of the elders, conjecturing the sense of the saying, told them they had quite missed its meaning it they thought the gods complained of them without reason. Of material things they had indeed rendered to the gods all the first-fruits in the right and proper manner, but of human offspring, a thing of all others the most precious in the sight of the gods, the promised portion still remained due; if, however, the gods received their just share of this also, the oracle would be satisfied.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.24.2
§ 1.24.2 There were, indeed, some who thought that he spoke aright, but others felt that there was treachery behind his words. And when some one proposed to ask the god whether it was acceptable to him to receive tithes of human beings, they sent their messengers a second time, and the god ordered them so to do. Thereupon strife arose among them concerning the manner of choosing the tithes, and those who had the government of the cities first quarrelled among themselves
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.24.3
§ 1.24.3 and afterwards the rest of the people held their magistrates in suspicion. And there began to be disorderly emigrations, such as might well be expected from a people driven forth by a frenzy and madness inflicted by the hand of Heaven. Many households disappeared entirely when part of their members left; for the relations of those who departed were unwilling to be separated from their dearest friends and remain among their worst enemies.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.24.4
§ 1.24.4 These, therefore, were the first to migrate from Italy and wander about Greece and many parts of the barbarian world; but after them others had the same experience, and this continued every year. For the rulers in these cities ceased not to select the first-fruits of the youth as soon as they arrived at manhood, both because they desired to render what was due to the gods and also because they feared uprisings on the part of lurking enemies. Many, also, under specious pretences were being driven away by their enemies through hatred; so that there were many emigrations and the Pelasgian nation was scattered over most of the earth.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.25.1
§ 1.25.1 Not only were the Pelasgians superior to many in warfare, as the result of their training in the midst of dangers while they lived among warlike nations, but they also rose to the highest proficiency in seamanship, by reason of their living with the Tyrrhenians; and Necessity, which is quite sufficient to give daring to those in want of a livelihood, was their leader and director in every dangerous enterprise, so that wherever they went they conquered without difficulty.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.25.2
§ 1.25.2 And the same people were called by the rest of the world both Tyrrhenians and Pelasgians, the former name being from the country out of which they had been driven and the latter in memory of their ancient origin. I mention this so that no one, when he hears poets or historians call the Pelasgians Tyrrhenians also, may wonder how the same people got both these names.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.25.3
§ 1.25.3 Thus, with regard to them, Thucydides has a clear account of the Thracian Acte and of the cities situated in it, which are inhabited by men who speak two languages. Concerning the Pelasgian nation these are his words: “There is also a Chalcidian element among them, but the largest element is Pelasgian, belonging to the Tyrrhenians who once inhabited Lemnos and Athens.”
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.25.4
§ 1.25.4 And Sophocles makes the chorus in his drama Inachus speak the following anapaestic verses: “O fair-flowing Inachus, of ocean begot, That sire of all waters, thou rulest with might O'er the Argive fields and Hera's hills And Tyrrhene Pelasgians also.”
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.25.5
§ 1.25.5 For the name of Tyrrhenia was then known throughout Greece, and all the western part of Italy was called by that name, the several nations of which it was composed having lost their distinctive appellations. The same thing happened to many parts of Greece also, and particularly to that part of it which is now called the Peloponnesus; for it was after one of the nations that inhabited it, namely the Achaean, that the whole peninsula also, in which are comprised the Arcadian, the Ionian and many other nations, was called Achaia.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.26.1
§ 1.26.1 The time when the calamities of the Pelasgians began was about the second generation before the Trojan War; and they continued to occur even after that war, till the nation was reduced to very inconsiderable numbers. For, with the exception of Croton, the important city in Umbria, and any others that they had founded in the land of the Aborigines, all the rest of the Pelasgian towns were destroyed. But Croton long preserved its ancient form, having only recently changed both its name and in heights; it is now a Roman colony, called Corthonia.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.26.2
§ 1.26.2 After the Pelasgians left the country their cities were seized by the various peoples which happened to live nearest them in each case, but chiefly by the Tyrrhenians, who made themselves masters of the greatest part and the best of them. As regards these Tyrrhenians, some declare them to be natives of Italy, but others call them foreigners. Those who make them a native race say that their name was given them from the forts, which they were the first of the inhabitants of this country to build; for covered buildings enclosed by walls are called by the Tyrrhenian as well as by the Greeks tyrseis or “towers.” So they will have it that they received their name from this circumstance in like manner as did the Mossynoeci in Asia; for these also live in high wooden palisades resembling towers, which they call mossynes.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.27.1
§ 1.27.1 But those who relate a legendary tale about their having come from a foreign land say that Tyrrhenus, who was the leader of the colony, gave his name to the nation, and that he was a Lydian by birth, from the district formerly called Maeonia, and migrated in ancient times. They add that he was the fifth in descent from Zeus; for they say that the son of Zeus and Ge was Manes, the first king of that country, and his son by Callirrhoe, the daughter of Oceanus, was Cotys, who by Halie, the daughter of earth-born Tyllus, had two sons, Asies and Atys,
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.27.2
§ 1.27.2 from the latter of whom by Callithea, the daughter of Choraeus, came Lydus and Tyrrhenus. Lydus, they continue, remaining there, inherited his father's kingdom, and from him the country was called Lydia; but Tyrrhenus, who was the leader of the colony, conquered a large portion of Italy and gave his name to those who had taken part in the expedition.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.27.3
§ 1.27.3 Herodotus, however, says that Tyrrhenus and his brother were the sons of Atys, the son of Manes, and that the migration of the Maeonians to Italy was not voluntary. For they say that in the reign of Atys there was a dearth in the country of the Maeonians and that the inhabitants, inspired by love of their native land, for a time contrived a great many methods to resist this calamity, one day permitting themselves but a moderate allowance of food and the next day fasting. But, as the mischief continued, they divided the people into two groups and cast lots to determine which should go out of the country and which should stay in it; of the sons of Atys one was assigned to the one group the other to the other.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.27.4
§ 1.27.4 And when the lot fell to that part of the people which was with Lydus to remain in the country, the other group departed after receiving their share of the common possessions; and landing in the western parts of Italy where the Umbrians dwelt, they remained there and built the cities that still existed even in his time.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.28.1
§ 1.28.1 I am aware that many other authors also have given this account of the Tyrrhenian race, some in the same terms, and others changing the character of the colony and the date. For some have said that Tyrrhenus was the son of Heracles by Omphale, the Lydian, and that he, coming into Italy, dispossessed the Pelasgians of their cities, though not of all, but of those only that lay beyond the Tiber toward the north. Others declare that Tyrrhenus was the son of Telephus and that after the taking of Troy he came into Italy.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.28.2
§ 1.28.2 But Xanthus of Lydia, who was as well acquainted with ancient history as any man and who may be regarded as an authority second to none on the history of his own country, neither names Tyrrhenus in any part of his history as a ruler of the Lydians nor knows anything of the landing of a colony of Maeonians in Italy; nor does he make the least mention of Tyrrhenia as a Lydian colony, though he takes notice of several things of less importance. He says that Lydus and Torebus were the sons of Atys; that they, having divided the kingdom they had inherited from their father, both remained in Asia, and from them the nations over which they reigned received their names. His words are these: “From Lydus are sprung the Lydians, and from Torebus the Torebians. There is little difference in their language and even now each nation scoffs at many words used by the other, even as do the Ionians and Dorians.”
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.28.3
§ 1.28.3 Hellanicus of Lesbos says that the Tyrrhenians, who were previously called Pelasgians, received their present name after they had settled in Italy. These are his words in the Phoronis: “Phrastor was the son of Pelasgus, their king, and Menippe, the daughter of Peneus; his son was Amyntor, Amyntor's son was Teutamides, and the latter's son was Nanas. In his reign the Pelasgians were driven out of their country by the Greeks, and after leaving their ships on the river Spines in the Ionian Sea, they took Croton, an inland city; and proceeding from there, they colonized the country now called Tyrrhenia.”
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.28.4
§ 1.28.4 But the account Myrsilus gives is the reverse of that given by Hellanicus. The Tyrrhenians, he says, after they had left their own country, were in the course of their wanderings called Pelargoi or “Storks,” from their resemblance to the birds of that name, since they swarmed in flocks both into Greece and into the barbarian lands; and they built the wall round the citadel of Athens which is called the Pelargic wall.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.29.1
§ 1.29.1 But in my opinion all though take the Tyrrhenians and the Pelasgians to be one and the same nation are mistaken. It is no wonder they were sometimes called by one another's names, since the same thing has happened to certain other nations also, both Greeks and barbarians, — for example, to the Trojans and Phrygians, who lived near each other (indeed, many have thought that those two nations were but one, differing in name only, not in fact). And the nations in Italy have been confused under a common name quite as often as any nations anywhere.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.29.2
§ 1.29.2 For there was a time when the Latins, the Umbrians, the Ausonians and many others were all called Tyrrhenians by the Greeks, the remoteness of the countries inhabited by these nations making their exact distinctions obscure to those who lived at a distance. And many of the historians have taken Rome itself for a Tyrrhenian city. I am persuaded, therefore, that these nations changed their name along with their place of abode, but can not believe that they both had a common origin, for this reason, among many others, that their languages are different and preserve not the least resemblance to one another.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.29.3
§ 1.29.3 “For neither the Crotoniats,” says Herodotus, “nor the Placians agree in language with any of their present neighbours, although they agree with each other; and it is clear that they preserve the fashion of speech which they brought with them into those regions.” However, one may well marvel that, although the Crotoniats had a speech similar to that of the Placians, who lived near the Hellespont, since both were originally Pelasgians, it was not at all similar to that of the Tyrrhenians, their nearest neighbours. For if kinship is to be regarded as the reason why two nations speak the same language, the contrary must, of course, be the reason for their speaking a different one,
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.29.4
§ 1.29.4 since surely it is not possible to believe that both these conditions arise from the same cause. For, although it might reasonably happen, on the one hand, that men of the same nation who have settled at a distance from one another would, as the result of associating with their neighbours, no longer preserve the same fashion of speech, yet it is not at all reasonable that men sprung from the same race and living in the same country should not in the least agree with one another in their language.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.30.1
§ 1.30.1 For this reason, therefore, I am persuaded that the Pelasgians are a different people from the Tyrrhenians. And I do not believe, either, that the Tyrrhenians were a colony of the Lydians; for they do not use the same language as the latter, nor can it be alleged that, though they no longer speak a similar tongue, they still retain some other indications of their mother country. For they neither worship the same gods as the Lydians nor make use of similar laws or institutions, but in these very respects they differ more from the Lydians than from the Pelasgians.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.30.2
§ 1.30.2 Indeed, those probably come nearest to the truth who declare that the nation migrated from nowhere else, but was native to the country, since it is found to be a very ancient nation and to agree with no other either in its language or in its manner of living. And there is no reason why the Greeks should not have called them by this name, both from their living in towers and from the name of one of their rulers.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.30.3
§ 1.30.3 The Romans, however, give them other names: from the country they once inhabited, named Etruria, they call them Etruscans, and from their knowledge of the ceremonies relating to divine worship, in which they excel others, they now call them, rather inaccurately, Tusci, but formerly, with the same accuracy as the Greeks, they called them Thyoscoi. Their own name for themselves, however, is the same as that of one of their leaders, Rasenna.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.30.4
§ 1.30.4 In another book I shall show what cities the Tyrrhenians founded, what forms of government they established, how great power they acquired, what memorable achievements they performed, and what fortunes attended them.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.30.5
§ 1.30.5 As for the Pelasgian nation, however, those who were not destroyed or dispersed among the various colonies (for a small number remained out of a great many) were left behind as fellow citizens of the Aborigines in these parts, where in the course of time their posterity, together with others, built the city of Rome. Such are the legends told about the Pelasgian race.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.31.1
§ 1.31.1 Soon after, another Greek expedition landed in this part of Italy, having migrated from Pallantium, a town of Arcadia, about the sixtieth year before the Trojan War, as the Romans themselves say. This colony had for its leader Evander, who is said to have been the son of Hermes and a local nymph of the Arcadians. The Greeks call her Themis and say that she was inspired, but the writers of the early history of Rome call her, in the native language, Carmenta. The nymph's name would be in Greek Thespiodos or “prophetic singer”; for the Romans call songs carmina, and they agree that this woman, possessed by divine inspiration, foretold to the people in song the things that would come to pass.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.31.2
§ 1.31.2 This expedition was not sent out by the common consent of the nation, but, a sedition having arisen among the people, the faction which was defeated left the country of their own accord. It chanced that the kingdom of the Aborigines had been inherited at that time by Faunus, a descendant of Mars, it is said, a man of prudence as well as energy, whom the Romans in their sacrifices and songs honour as one of the gods of their country. This man received the Arcadians, who were but few in number, with great friendship and gave them as much of his own land as they desired.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.31.3
§ 1.31.3 And the Arcadians, as Themis by inspiration kept advising them, chose a hill, not far from the Tiber, which is now near the middle of the city of Rome, and by this hill built a small village sufficient for the complement of the two ships in which they had come from Greece. Yet this village was ordained by fate to excel in the course of time all other cities, whether Greek or barbarian, not only in its size, but also in the majesty of its empire and in every other form of prosperity, and to be celebrated above them all as long as mortality shall endure.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.31.4
§ 1.31.4 They named the town Pallantium after their mother-city in Arcadia; now, however, the Romans call it Palatium, time having obscured the correct form, and this name has given occasion of the many to suggest absurd etymologies.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.32.1
§ 1.32.1 But some writers, among them Polybius of Megalopolis, related that the town was named after Pallas, a lad who died there; they say that he was the son of Hercules and Lavinia, the daughter of Evander, and that his maternal grandfather raised a tomb to him on the hill and called the place Pallantium, after the lad.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.32.2
§ 1.32.2 But I have never seen any tomb of Pallas at Rome nor have I heard of any drink-offerings being made in his honour nor been able to discover anything else of that nature, although this family has not been left unremembered or without those honours with which divine beings are worshipped by men. For I have learned that public sacrifices are performed yearly by the Romans to Evander and to Carmenta in the same manner as to the other heroes and minor deities; and I have seen two altars that were erected, one to Carmenta under the Capitoline hill near the Porta Carmentalis, and the other to Evander by another hill, called the Aventine, not far from the Porta Trigemina; but I know of nothing of this kind that is done in honour of Pallas.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.32.3
§ 1.32.3 As for the Arcadians, when they had joined in a single settlement at the foot of the hill, they proceeded to adorn their town with all the buildings to which they had been accustomed at home and to erect temples. And first they built a temple to the Lycaean Pan by the direction of Themis (for to the Arcadians Pan is the most ancient and the most honoured of all the gods), when they had found a suitable site for the purpose. This place the Romans call the Lupercal, but we should call it Lykaion or “Lycaion.”
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.32.4
§ 1.32.4 Now, it is true, since the district about the sacred precinct has been united with the city, it has become difficult to make out by conjecture the ancient nature of the place. Nevertheless, at first, we are told, there was a large cave under the hill overarched by a dense wood; deep springs issued from beneath the rocks, and the glen adjoining the cliffs was shaded by thick and lofty trees.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.32.5
§ 1.32.5 In this place they raised an altar to the god and performed their traditional sacrifice, which the Romans have continued to offer up to this day in the month of February, after the winter solstice, without altering anything in the rites then performed. The manner of this sacrifice will be related later. Upon the summit of the hill they set apart the precinct of Victory and instituted sacrifices to her also, lasting throughout the year, which the Romans performed even in my time.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.33.1
§ 1.33.1 The Arcadians have a legend that this goddess was the daughter of Pallas, the son of Lycaon, and that she received those honours from mankind which she now enjoys at the desire of Athena, with whom she had been reared. For they say that Athena, as soon as she was born, was handed over to Pallas by Zeus and that she was reared by him till she grew up. They built also a temple to Ceres, to whom by the ministry of women they offered sacrifices without wine, according to the custom of the Greeks, none of which rites our time has changed.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.33.2
§ 1.33.2 Moreover, they assigned a precinct to the Equestrian Neptune and instituted the festival called by the Arcadians Hippocrateia and by the Romans Consualia, during which it is customary among the latter for the horses and mules to rest from work and to have their heads crowned with flowers.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.33.3
§ 1.33.3 They also consecrated many other precincts, altars and images of the gods and instituted purifications and sacrifices according to the customs of their own country, which continued to be performed down to my day in the same manner. Yet I should not be surprised if some of the ceremonies by reason of their great antiquity have been forgotten by their posterity and neglected; however, those that are still practised are sufficient proofs that they are derived from the customs formerly in use among the Arcadians, of which I shall speak more at length elsewhere.

Via ToposText (topostext.org), a project of the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation created by Brady Kiesling. Translated by Earnest Cary (1879-19??) and Edward Spelman (d. 1767). Composed ca. 7 BCE. Licence: public domain. Source.