Editing Vestini

{{Short description|Ancient Italic tribe from central Italy}}

[[Image:06 - Piceni et Vestinorum, Pelignorum, Marrucinorum; ac Frentanorum agri descriptio, 1624 - Philip Clüver.jpg|thumb|380px|The territory of the Vestini in a 1624 map by Philip Clüver published in ''Italia Antiqua''.]]
[[File:Pescara 80 (RaBoe).jpg|thumb|380px|Vestini country, looking inland at [[Gran Sasso]] from [[Pescara]].]]

'''<span lang="Ka" dir="ltr">Vestini</span>''' ({{Langx|la|Vestīni}}<ref>{{Cite web|title=ONLINE LATIN DICTIONARY - Latin - English|url=https://www.online-latin-dictionary.com/latin-english-dictionary.php?lemma=VESTINI100|access-date=2022-01-06|website=www.online-latin-dictionary.com}}</ref>) were an [[Italic peoples|Italic tribe]] who occupied the area of the modern [[Abruzzo]] (central Italy), included between the [[Gran Sasso]] and the northern bank of the [[Aterno-Pescara|Aterno]] river. Their main centres were ''Pitinum ''(near modern [[L'Aquila]]), ''Aufinum ''([[Ofena]]), ''Peltuinum'' ([[Prata d'Ansidonia]]), ''Pinna ''([[Penne, Abruzzo|Penne]]) and ''[[Aternum]] ''([[Pescara]], shared with the [[Marrucini]]).

==Historical geography==
Writing at about 100 years after the end of the [[Social War (91–87 BC)|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]], placed the location of the Vestini as he knew it to be as follows. The southern border was the Aternus River (modern [[Aterno-Pescara]]). Aternum (modern [[Pescara]]), then on the southern bank of the mouth of the river, was on the [[Marrucini]]an side. Both the [[Peligni]] upstream on the southern bank and the Marrucini downstream shared the port with the Vestini.<ref name=Strabo5.4.2>{{cite book |author=Strabo |authorlink=Strabo |title=Geography  |url=https://archive.org/details/strabogeographyb00stra |chapter=Book V, Chapter 4, Section 2}}</ref> Strabo has little else to say about the country of the Vestini, except that it was mountainous. [[Ptolemy]] has only to add that the towns of the Vestini were [[Penne, Abruzzo|Pinna]], [[Aveia|Avia]], Amiternum (a mistake, probably [[Aufina]]) and [[Città Sant'Angelo|Angulus]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Ptolemy |authorlink=Ptolemy |chapter=Book III, Chapter 1|title=Geography|date=1991 |isbn=978-0-486-26896-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/geography0000ptol |url-access=registration }}</ref> [[Pliny the Elder]] mentions also Peltuina.<ref>{{cite book |author=Pliny the Elder |authorlink=Pliny the Elder |title=Natural History |year=1855 |url=https://archive.org/details/naturalhistoryof21855plin |chapter=Book III, Chapter 12}}</ref> He lists the Vestini in Augustus' Regio IV.

==History==

===The period of Vestinian sovereignty===
A Vestini sculpture, the [[Warrior of Capestrano]], dating from the 6th century BC, was found in [[Capestrano]], [[province of L'Aquila]]; it represents the King of Vestini tribe, Naevius Pompuledius, and was made by the sculptor Aninis.

The tribe entered into the [[ancient Rome|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, Italy|Atri]], a Latin colony founded about 290 BC,<ref>
{{harvnb|Conway|1911}} cites: [[Livy]], ''Epit.'' xi.</ref> the local dialect, which belongs to the north [[Oscan]] group, survived certainly to the middle of the 2nd century BC (see the inscriptions cited below) and probably until the [[Social War (91–88 BC)|Social War]].{{sfn|Conway|1911}}

===Romanization===
The oldest Latin inscriptions of the district are [[Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum|C.I.L.]] ix. 3521, from [[Furfo]] with [[Sulla]]n alphabet, and 3574, "{{lang|la|litteris antiquissimis}}," but with couraverunt, a form which, as intermediate between {{lang|la|coir-}} or {{lang|la|coer-}} and {{lang|la|cur-}}, cannot be earlier than 100 BC. The latter inscription contains also the forms {{lang|la|magisterles}} (nom. p1.) and {{lang|la|ueci}} (gen. sing.), which show that the Latin first spoken by the Vestini was not that of [[Rome]], but that of their neighbours the [[Marsi]] and [[Aequi]]. 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.
{{sfn|Conway|1911}}

==See also==
* [[Vestinian language]]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
'''Attribution:'''
*{{EB1911|first=Robert Seymour |last=Conway |wstitle=Vestini |volume=27 |page=1056}} Endnotes:
**See further [[Paeligni]] and [[Sabini]], and for the inscriptions and further details, R. S. Conway, ''The Italic Dialects'', pp.&nbsp;258 ff., on which this article is based.

== Further reading ==
* {{cite book |last1=Menozzi |first1=Oliva |last2=Acconcia |first2=Valeria |chapter=The Vestini |title=The Peoples of Ancient Italy |editor1=Gary D. Farney |editor2=Guy Bradley |pages=519-542 |location=Berlin, Boston |publisher=De Gruyter |date=2017 |doi=10.1515/9781614513001-027}}

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[[Category:Italic peoples]]
[[Category:Ancient Abruzzo]]