At the station called ad Novas, a road branched off to the left towards Sienna: if the distances are right, this communication must have been a circuitous one. I am inclined to think that it joined the Via Clodia near Sienna, thus connecting the central parts of Etruria with the coast.

The Table gives the following stations:

A communication is pointed out in the same Iti

nerary between Sienna and Populonium.

Lastly, there remains to be noticed a road which branched off from the Via Cassia at Baccano, and led to Ameria in Umbria, from which city it obtained the name of Via Amerina. Its divisions are thus given in the Table:

a Ameria, and the other stations between it and Perusia, are

in Umbria.

SECTION VI.

UMBRIA AND PICENUM.

Origin and history of the Umbri, the Aborigines of Italy-Description of the maritime part of Umbria, occupied by the Senones-Interior divided by the Apennines-Picenum-Account of the Picentes and Prætutii-Their boundaries-Description of their country-Roman roads through both provinces. It will not be necessary to examine at length the different opinions which have been maintained respecting the origin of the Umbrian nation. I shall rest satisfied in the present instance with laying before the reader, in as succinct a manner as the inquiry will admit of, what may be collected from the writings of the ancients, and the researches of modern critics on this point up to the present time. The Latin writers were evidently acquainted with no people of Italy more ancient than the Umbri. “Um"bri antiquissimus Italiæ populus," says Florus. (I. 17.) "Umbrorum gens antiquissima Italiæ ex"istimatur," affirms Pliny: (III.14.) and Dionysius of Halicarnassus assures us, they were one of the oldest and most numerous nations of Italy. (I. 19.) It has been seen indeed from his account, as well as from Herodotus, (I. 94.) that the Umbri were already settled in that country long before the arrival

of the Tyrrhenian colony. To the Greeks they were known under the name of 'Oußpikol, a word which they supposed to be derived from μßpos, under the idea that they were a people saved from an universal deluge 2. (Plin. loc. cit. Sol. 8.) Dionysius has farther acquainted us with some particulars respecting the Umbri, which he derived from Zenodotus, a Greek of Trozene, who had written a history of this people.

This author appears to have considered the Umbri as an indigenous race, whose primary seat was the country around Rieti, a district which, according to Dionysius, was formerly occupied by the Aborigines b. Zenodotus was also of opinion, that the Sabines were descended from the Umbri; and though it is customary to regard them as belonging to the Oscan race, I see no reason why the latter people, who are very indistinctly classed and defined, should not be considered as descended from the same indigenous stock: nay rather, when we consider the analogy which is allowed to exist between the several ancient dialects of Italy, and the uniformity of topographical nomenclature, which may be traced

a This Greek derivation is ridiculous; but does it not suppose a tradition of the deluge retained by this primitive race?

b Take away the Enotrian Aborigines, who exist only in the imagination of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and this simple statement holds good. The Umbri having extended themselves into various parts of Italy, and in particular into the Sa

bine country; this last colony, upon becoming numerous and powerful, detaches itself from the parent race, and subsequently drives them from their possessions near Rieti and the adjacent district. Dion. Hal. I. 49. where see Cato's account.

This is sufficiently proved by Lanzi's work. See particularly t. i. p. 444.

throughout a great part of the peninsula, there seems to be a strong argument in favour of such an hypothesis. Considering therefore the Umbri as confessedly the most ancient people of Italy, I think we may safely ascribe to them the population of the central and mountainous parts of that country, as also the primitive form of its language, until the several communities of the Etruscans, Sabines, and Latins, successively detached themselves from the parent nation, and from a combination of different elements, adopted also different modifications of the same primeval tongue.

Connected with the origin of the ancient Umbri, there still remains a question which ought not to be entirely disregarded. It was confidently stated by Cornelius Bocchus, a Roman writer quoted by Solinus (c. 8. Serv. Æn. XII. 753.) and Isidorus, (Orig. VIII. 2.) that the Umbri were of the same racee with

d A few examples will best explain my meaning.

Names of places in Umbria corresponding with those of other parts of Italy.