Editing Hernici

{{Short description|Italic tribe in Ancient Italy}}
{{primary sources|date=December 2024}}
The '''Hernici''' were an [[Italic peoples|Italic tribe]] of ancient [[Italy]], whose territory was in [[Latium]] between the [[Fucine Lake]] and the [[Sacco (river)|Sacco River]] (''Trerus''), bounded by the [[Volsci]] on the south, and by the [[Aequi]] and the [[Marsi]] on the north.

== History ==
{{See also|Roman–Hernici conflicts}}
[[File:Aurunci Hernici Latini Marsi Volsci.jpg|thumb|250px|Settlements in central Italy ({{circa}} 400 BCE).
{{legend|purple|Hernici}}
{{legend|red|[[Latins (Italic tribe)|Latins]] (including [[ancient Rome|Rome]])}}
{{legend|SteelBlue|[[Volsci]]}}
]]
For many years of the early [[Roman Republic]], the Hernici were allied with Rome and fought alongside it against its neighbours.{{cn|date=December 2024}}

In 495 BC Livy records that they entered into a treaty with the [[Volsci]] against [[ancient Rome]].<ref>[[Livy]], ''[[Ab urbe condita libri (Livy)|Ab urbe condita]]'', [[s:From the Founding of the City/Book 2#22|2.22]]</ref><ref name="Niebuhr1845">{{cite book|author=Barthold Georg Niebuhr|title=Niebuhr's History of Rome|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E7UUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA180|year=1845|publisher=D.A. Talboys|pages=180–}}</ref>

They long maintained their independence, and in 486 BC they were still strong enough to conclude an equal treaty with the Latins.<ref>Livy, ii. 41.</ref>{{sfn|Rowland|1983|p=758}}<ref>[[Dionysius of Halicarnassus]] viii. 64 and 68</ref>

In 475 BC they [[Roman-Aequian wars#Ongoing hostilities from 485 BC|fought]] alongside the [[Latins (Italic tribe)|Latins]] against the Aequi and Volsci, and in the same year fought alongside Rome against the Veientes and Sabines.<ref>Livy, ii. 53.</ref>  In 468 BC they [[Roman-Volscian wars#Volscian attacks between 471 BC and 468 BC|fought alongside]] Rome against the Volsci.<ref>Livy, ii. 64.</ref>

In 464 BC they warned Rome of the betrayal of [[Ecetra]], and [[Roman-Aequian wars#Ongoing hostilities from 485 BC|fought alongside]] Rome against the Aequi who were allied with the Ecetrans.<ref>Livy, iii.4-5.</ref>

They broke away from [[Rome]] in 362<ref>[[Livy]] [[s:From the Founding of the City/Book 7#6|vii.6 if]].</ref> and in 306,<ref>Livy [[s:From the Founding of the City/Book 9#42|ix.42]]</ref> when their chief town [[Anagni]]a was taken and reduced to a ''praefectura'', but [[Ferentino|Ferentinum]], [[Alatri|Aletrium]] and [[veroli|Verulae]] were rewarded for their fidelity by being allowed to remain free ''[[municipium|municipia]]'', a position which at that date they preferred to the ''civitas''.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Hernici|volume=13|page=374|first=Robert Seymour|last=Conway|author-link=Robert Seymour Conway}}</ref>

The name of the Hernici, like that of the Volsci, is missing from the list of Italian peoples whom [[Polybius]]<ref>[[Polybius]], ii. 24</ref> describes as able to furnish troops in 225 BC. By that date, therefore, their territory cannot have been distinguished from Latium generally, and it seems probable that they had then received the full Roman citizenship. The oldest Latin inscriptions of the district (from Ferentinum<ref>''C.I.L.'' x. 5837-5840</ref>) are earlier than the [[Social War (91–88 BC)|Social War]], and present no local characteristic.<ref name="EB1911"/>

==Language==
{{Infobox language
  |name=Hernican
  |states=
  |region=[[Italy]]
  |extinct=yes
  |familycolor=Indo-European
  |fam2=[[Italic languages|Italic]]
  |fam3=[[Osco-Umbrian languages|Osco-Umbrian]]
  |fam4=[[Oscan language|Oscan]]?
  |script=[[Old Italic alphabet]]
  |iso3=xhr
  |linglist=xhr
  |glotto=hemi1234
}}
A couple of inscriptions show that the Hernican language was a member of the group of [[Osco-Umbrian languages|Osco-Umbrian (Sabellian) languages]]. Their name, with its "''co''" termination, classes them along with the "co"-tribes, like the Volsci, who would seem to have been earlier inhabitants of the west coast of Italy, rather than with the tribes whose names were formed with the "''no''"-suffix.<ref name="EB1911"/>

==Gentes of Hernician origin==

*[[Cispia (gens)]]
*[[Hirtia gens]]
*[[Fabricia gens]]

==See also==
*[[Hernici Mounts]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== Bibliography ==
=== Primary sources ===
* [[Livy|Livius]], ''[[History of Rome (Livy)|Ab Urbe Condita]]''. Liber VII. ({{circa}} 27–9 BCE, in Latin).
** {{cite book |author=Livy |translator=Canon Roberts |date=1905 |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/From_the_Founding_of_the_City/Book_7 |title=From the Founding of the City. Book 7.}}
* [[Dionysius of Halicarnassus]], ''Roman Antiquities'', Book VIII.
* [[Polybius|Polybios]], ''[[The Histories (Polybius)|Ἱστορίαι (Historiai)]]'' ({{circa}} 145–120 BCE, in Greek).
** {{cite book |author=Polybius |translator=Evelyn S. Shuckburgh |title=Histories, Book 2. |chapter=Forces Available to the Romans |date=1962 |orig-date=1889 |publisher=Macmillan / Bloomington / Perseus Digital Library |chapter-url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Plb.+2.24&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0234 |access-date=15 December 2024}}

=== Literature ===
*{{Cite journal |last=Rowland |first=Robert J. |date=1983 |title=Rome's Earliest Imperialism |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41532980 |journal=Latomus |volume=42 |issue=4 |pages=749–762 |jstor=41532980 |issn=0023-8856}}

==Further reading==
*{{Citation |last=Gnade |first=Marijke |title=The Volscians and Hernicians |date=2017-11-20 |work=The Peoples of Ancient Italy |pages=461–472 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9781614513001-023 |access-date=2024-05-31 |publisher=De Gruyter |doi=10.1515/9781614513001-023 |isbn=978-1-61451-300-1}}
{{Italic languages}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Italic peoples]]
[[Category:Socii]]
[[Category:Osco-Umbrian languages]]