Vestini () were an

Italic tribe The Italic peoples were an ethnolinguistic group identified by their use of Italic languages, a branch of the Indo-European language family. The Italic peoples are descended from the Indo-European speaking peoples who inhabited Italy from at leas ...

who occupied the area of the modern

Abruzzo , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1 ...

(central Italy), included between the

Gran Sasso Gran Sasso d'Italia (; ) is a massif in the Apennine Mountains of Italy. Its highest peak, Corno Grande (2,912 metres), is the highest mountain in the Apennines, and the second-highest mountain in Italy outside the Alps. The mountain lies ...

and the northern bank of the

Aterno The Aterno-Pescara (ancient ''Aternus'' from the Greek ''Aternos'', ''Άτερνος'') is a river system in Abruzzo, eastern central Italy. The river is known as the Aterno near its source in the mountains, but takes the name Pescara, actually a ...

river. Their main centres were ''Pitinum ''(near modern

L'Aquila L'Aquila ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in central Italy. It is the capital city of both the Abruzzo region and of the Province of L'Aquila. , it has a population of 70,967 inhabitants. Laid out within medieval walls on a hill in the wide valle ...

), ''Aufinum ''(

Ofena Ofena ( Abruzzese: ') 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". The comune/village is home to a vast and rich ...

), ''Peltuinum'' ( Prata d'Ansidonia), ''Pinna ''(

Penne Penne () is an extruded type of pasta with cylinder-shaped pieces, their ends cut at an angle. ''Penne'' is the plural form of the Italian ''penna'' (meaning ''feather'' but ''pen'' as well), deriving from Latin ''penna'' (meaning " feather" o ...

) and ''

Aternum Aternum was a Roman town, on the site of Pescara, in Italy. Some historians also refer to Aternum with the name of ''Ostia Aterni'',Giuseppe Quieti, ''Pescara antica città'' due to its location at the mouth of the river Aternus. Being connected t ...

''( Pescara, shared with the

Marrucini The Marrucini were an Italic tribe that occupied a small strip of territory around the ancient ''Teate'' (modern Chieti), on the east coast of Abruzzo, Italy, limited by the Aterno and Foro Rivers. Other Marrucinian centers included ''Ceio'' ( Sa ...

Historical geography

Writing at about 100 years after the end of the Social War, 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,

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called " Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-sighted that he could s ...

, placed the location of the Vestini as he knew it to be as follows. The southern border was the Aternus River (modern

Aterno-Pescara The Aterno-Pescara (ancient ''Aternus'' from the Greek ''Aternos'', ''Άτερνος'') is a river system in Abruzzo, eastern central Italy. The river is known as the Aterno near its source in the mountains, but takes the name Pescara, actually ...

). Aternum (modern Pescara), then on the southern bank of the mouth of the river, was on the

an side. Both the

Peligni 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 whic ...

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 Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importanc ...

has only to add that the towns of the Vestini were Pinna,

Avia Avia Motors s.r.o. is a Czech automotive manufacturer. It was founded in 1919 as an aircraft maker, and diversified into trucks after 1945. As an aircraft maker it was notable for producing biplane fighter aircraft, especially the B-534. Avia ...

, Amiternum (a mistake, probably

Aufina Aufīna was an ancient city of the Vestini, mentioned by Pliny (iii. 12. s. 17), who enumerates the ''Aufinates Cismontani'' among the communities of the Vestini; and states that they were united with the Peltuinates, but whether municipally or loc ...

) and Angulus.

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ' ...

mentions also Peltuina. He lists the Vestini in Augustus' Regio IV.

History

The period of Vestinian sovereignty

A Vestini sculpture, the

Warrior of Capestrano ''The Warrior of Capestrano'' is a tall limestone statue of a Picentes, Picene warrior, dated to around the 6th century BC. The statue stands at around 2.09 m. It was discovered accidentally in 1934 by a laborer ploughing the field in the Italian ...

, dating from the 6th century BC, was found in

Capestrano Capestrano ( Abruzzese: ') is a '' comune'' and small town with 885 inhabitants (2017), in the Province of L'Aquila, Abruzzo, Italy. It is located in the Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga National Park. History Antiquity In the necropolis the stat ...

province of L'Aquila The Province of L'Aquila ( it, Provincia dell'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 ...

; it represents the King of Vestini tribe, Naevius Pompuledius, and was made by the sculptor Aninis. The tribe entered into the Roman alliance, retaining its own independence, in 302 BC, 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 ( sa, अत्रि) or Attri is a Vedic sage, who is credited with composing numerous hymns to Agni, Indra, and other Vedic deities of Hinduism. Atri is one of the Saptarishi (seven great Vedic sages) in the Hindu tradition, and the on ...

, a Latin colony founded about 290 BC, cites:

Livy Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding in ...

, ''Epit.'' xi. the local dialect, which belongs to the north

Oscan Oscan is an extinct Indo-European language of southern Italy. The language is in the Osco-Umbrian or Sabellic branch of the Italic languages. Oscan is therefore a close relative of Umbrian. Oscan was spoken by a number of tribes, including t ...

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. ix. 3521, from Furfo with

Sulla Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix (; 138–78 BC), commonly known as Sulla, was a Roman general and statesman. He won the first large-scale civil war in Roman history and became the first man of the Republic to seize power through force. Sulla had t ...

n alphabet, and 3574, "," but with couraverunt, a form which, as intermediate between or and , cannot be earlier than 100 BC. The latter inscription contains also the forms (nom. p1.) and (gen. sing.), which show that the Latin first spoken by the Vestini was not that of

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, but that of their neighbours the

Marsi The Marsi were an Italic people of ancient Italy, whose chief centre was Marruvium, on the eastern shore of Lake Fucinus (which was drained for agricultural land in the late 19th century). The area in which they lived is now called Marsica. D ...

and

Aequi 300px, Location of the Aequi (Equi) in central Italy, 5th century BC. The Aequi ( grc, Αἴκουοι and Αἴκοι) were an Italic tribe on a stretch of the Apennine Mountains to the east of Latium in central Italy who appear in the early hist ...

. 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.

Notes

References

Attribution: *{{EB1911, first=Robert Seymour , last=Conway , wstitle=Vestini , volume=27 , page=1056 Endnotes: **See further

Paeligni 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 ...