Italy Before the Romans

A Samnite warrior on a fourth-century BC vase
I want to bring to your attention an article by Erla Zwingle --Italy Before the Romans -- which appeared in the January 2005 issue of National Geographic. If you don't subscribe to National Geographic, you can look it up in any of our local libraries.
This is a fascinating bit of reading for anyone interested in the dawn of our Italian civilization…

The article highlights pre-Roman cultures such as the Faliscans, Vestini, Marsians, and especially the Samnites, the fierce people that once dominated the mountains of Abruzzo and Molise. It emphasizes the fact that present-day archeological discoveries are bringing to light some extraordinary aspects of these people before the Romans became masters of Italy. Present day culture in Italy is still rich in customs and words drawn from these pre-Roman civilizations---much more than traditional teachings of history has led us to believe.

Currency of Italic tribes against Rome
Prof Nicola Terrenato of the University of North Carolina explains that the regionalization that is still so strong in Italy today stems from the differences between all these people--they are essentially Italy's cultural roots. Many of the religious feasts celebrated today, find their origins in pagan rites which, with the coming of Christianity were absorbed and modified as the cult of saints…to say nothing of rituals against the evil eye, still very much alive after 3 millennia in 21st century Abruzzo.

Archeological discoveries and linguistic analyses in the near future are bound to tell us much more about these people than the Roman and later-epoch historians were able or willing to tell us. (Romeo Sabatini)

PS- At the same time that this article appeared in National Geographic, a book by the title Michele e il Guerriero was published in Abruzzo. Guerriero refers to the 6th century BC warrior king of the Vestini people of Abruzzo, featured in the National Geographic article; Michele is the local farmer who in 1934 found his statue. Read the review of this book written by our member Omero Sabatini.