Vestini
Encyclopedia
Abruzzo
Abruzzo is a region in Italy, its western border lying less than due east of Rome. Abruzzo borders the region of Marche to the north, Lazio to the west and south-west, Molise to the south-east, and the Adriatic Sea to the east...
(central Italy) included between the Gran Sasso
Gran Sasso
Gran Sasso d'Italia is a mountain located in the Abruzzo region of central Italy. The Gran Sasso forms the centerpiece of the Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga National Park which was established in 1993 and holds the highest mountains in continental Italy south of the Alps and is part of the...
and the northern bank of the Aterno river. Their main centres were Pitinum (near modern L'Aquila
L'Aquila
L'Aquila is a city and comune in central Italy, both the capital city of the Abruzzo region and of the Province of L'Aquila. , it has a population of 73,150 inhabitants, but has a daily presence in the territory of 100,000 people for study, tertiary activities, jobs and tourism...
), Aufinum (Ofena
Ofena
Ofena is a comune and town in the Province of L'Aquila in the Abruzzo region of Italy. It is located in the natural park known as the "Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga National Park"....
), Peltuinum (Prata d'Ansidonia
Prata d'Ansidonia
Prata d'Ansidonia is a comune and town in the province of L'Aquila, in the Abruzzo region of central Italy....
), Pinna (Penne) and Aternum
Aternum
Aternum was a Roman town, on the site of Pescara, in Italy. Some historians refer to Aternum with the name of Ostia Aterni: in fact, the town was built at the mouth of the river Aternus. Aternum had an important role in Italian transport and it was connected to Rome through the Via Tiburtina, and...
(Pescara
Pescara
Pescara is the capital city of the Province of Pescara, in the Abruzzo region of Italy. As of January 1, 2007 it was the most populated city within Abruzzo at 123,059 residents, 400,000 with the surrounding metropolitan area...
, shared with the Marrucini
Marrucini
The Marrucini were an ancient tribe which occupied a small strip of territory around the ancient Teate , on the east coast of Abruzzo, Italy, limited by the Aterno and Foro Rivers...
) .
Historical geography
Writing at about 100 years after the end of the Social War (91–88 BC), a failed last attempt of the italic tribes to form a union, Italy, that would compete with Rome in power and influence, the Roman geographer, StraboStrabo
Strabo, also written Strabon was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus , a city which he said was situated the approximate equivalent of 75 km from the Black Sea...
, placed the location of the Vestini as he knew it to be as follows. The southern border was the Aternus River (modern Aterno-Pescara). Aternum (modern Pescara
Pescara
Pescara is the capital city of the Province of Pescara, in the Abruzzo region of Italy. As of January 1, 2007 it was the most populated city within Abruzzo at 123,059 residents, 400,000 with the surrounding metropolitan area...
), then on the southern bank of the mouth of the river, was on the Marrucini
Marrucini
The Marrucini were an ancient tribe which occupied a small strip of territory around the ancient Teate , on the east coast of Abruzzo, Italy, limited by the Aterno and Foro Rivers...
an side. Both the Peligni upstream on the southern bank and the Marrucini downstream shared the port with the Vestini. Strabo has little else to say about the country of the Vestini, except that it was mountainous. Ptolemy
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...
has only to add that the towns of the Vestini were Pinna, Avia
Aveia
Aveia was an ancient town of the Vestini, on the Via Claudia Nova, c. 10 km south-east of L'Aquila, N.E. of the modern village of Fossa, in central Italy....
, Amiternum (a mistake, probably Aufina
Aufina
Aufina was an ancient city of the Vestini, mentioned by Pliny , who enumerates the Aufinates Cismontani among the communities of the Vestini; and states that they were united with the Peltuinates, but whether municipally or locally, is not clear...
) and Angulus
Città Sant'Angelo
Città Sant'Angelo is a town and comune in the province of Pescara, Abruzzo, Italy.-History:Located in the eastern portion of the Vestine region. Mentioned by Plinius as one of four Vestini cities, Angelus or Angulum, where today Città Sant’Angelo stands. It is cited from the 12th century as...
. Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
mentons also Peltuina. He lists the Vestini in Augustus' Regio IV.
The period of Vestinian sovereignty
A Vestini sculpture, the Warrior of Capestrano, dating from the 6th century BC, was found in CapestranoCapestrano
Capestrano is a comune and small town with 965 inhabitants , in the Province of L'Aquila, Abruzzo, Italy. It is located in the natural park known as the "Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga National Park".-Antiquity:...
, province of L'Aquila
Province of L'Aquila
thumb|left|200px|Map of the province.The Province of L'Aquila is the largest, most mountainous and least densely populated province of the Abruzzo region of central Italy. It comprises about half the landmass of Abruzzo and occupies the western part of the region...
; it represents the King of Vestini tribe, Naevius Pompuledius, and was made by the sculptor Aninis.
The tribe entered into the Roman alliance
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
, retaining its own independence, in 302 BC
302 BC
Year 302 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Denter and Paullus...
, and issuing coins of its own in the following century. A northerly section round Amiternum near the passes into Sabine country probably received the Caerite franchise soon after. In spite of this, and of the influence of Hadria, modern Atri
Atri, Italy
Atri is a comune in the Province of Teramo in the Abruzzo region of Italy. It has a population of over 11,500...
, a Latin colony founded about 290 BC
290 BC
Year 290 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Rufinus and Dentatus...
(Livy
Livy
Titus Livius — known as Livy in English — was a Roman historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people. Ab Urbe Condita Libri, "Chapters from the Foundation of the City," covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome well before the traditional foundation in 753 BC...
, Epit. xi.), the local dialect, which belongs to the north Oscan group, survived certainly to the middle of the 2nd century BC (see the inscriptions cited below) and probably until the Social War.
Romanization
The oldest Latin inscriptions of the district are C.I.L.Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum
The Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum is a comprehensive collection of ancient Latin inscriptions. It forms an authoritative source for documenting the surviving epigraphy of classical antiquity. Public and personal inscriptions throw light on all aspects of Roman life and history...
ix. 3521, from Furfo with Sullan alphabet, and 3574, "litteris antiquissimis," but with couraverunt, a form which, as intermediate between coir- or coer- and cur-, cannot be earlier than 100 BC
100 BC
Year 100 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Marius and Flaccus...
. The latter inscription contains also the forms magisterles (nom. p1.) and ueci (gen. sing.), which show that the Latin first spoken by the Vestini was not that of Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, but that of their neighbours the Marsi
Marsi
Marsi is the Latin exonym for a people of ancient Italy, whose chief centre was Marruvium, on the eastern shore of Lake Fucinus, drained for agricultural land in the late 19th century. The area in which they lived is now called Marsica. During the Roman Republic the people of the region spoke a...
and Aequi
Aequi
thumb|300px|Location of the Aequi in central Italy.The Aequi were an ancient people of northeast Latium and the central Appennines of Italy who appear in the early history of ancient Rome. After a long struggle for independence from Rome they were defeated and substantial Roman colonies were...
. The inscription of Scoppito shows that at the time at which it was written the upper Aternus valley must be counted Vestine, not Sabine in point of dialect.