d
dialects of a common, Indo-germanic, tongue. Of these, the Latini, the
Aurunci (Ausones), the Osci (Opici), the Oenotri, and the Itali occupied,
in the order named, the western coast from the Tiber to the Straits of
Rhegium. Between the valley of the upper Tiber and the Adriatic were the
Umbri, while to the south of these, in the valleys of the central
Apennines and along the Adriatic coast, were settled the so-called
Sabellian peoples, chief of whom were the Sabini, the Picentes, the
Vestini, the Frentani, the Marsi, the Aequi, the Hernici, the Volsci, and
the Samnites. As we have noted, one of these peoples, the Itali, gave
their name to the whole country to the south of the Alps, and eventually
to this group of peoples in general, whom we call Italians, as distinct
from the other races who inhabited Italy in antiquity.

*The Iapygians.* Along the eastern coast from the promontory of Mt.
Garganus southwards were located the Iapygians; most probably, like the
Veneti, an Illyrian folk.

*The Greeks.* The western and southern shores of Italy, from the Bay of
Naples to Tarentum, were fringed with a chain of Hellenic settlements.

*The peoples of Sicily.* The Greeks had likewise colonized the eastern and
southern part of the island of Sicily. The central portion of the island
was still occupied by the Sicans and the Sicels, peoples who were in
possession of Sicily prior to the coming of the Greeks, and whom some
regard as an Italian, others as a Ligurian, or Iberian, element. In the
extreme west of Sicily were wedged in the small people of the Elymians,
another ethnographic puzzle. Here too the Phoenicians from Carthage had
firmly established themselves.

*Iberians in Sardinia and Corsica.* The inhabitants of Sardinia and
Corsica, islands which were unaffected by the migrations subsequent to the
Neolithic Age, are believed to have been of the same stock as the Iberians
of the Spanish peninsula. The Etruscans had their colonies in eastern
Corsica and the Carthaginians had obtained a footing on the southern and
western coasts of Sardinia.

From this survey of the peoples of Italy at the close of the sixth century
B. C., we can see that to the topographical obstacles placed by nature in
the path of the political unification of Italy there was added a still
more serious difficulty--that of racial and cultural antagonism.

II. THE ETRUSCANS

*Etruria.* About the opening of the eighth c