PART
5 –
Ch.XXXIII.9
The
Pelasgians or proto – Latins (Arimii)
(The
Pelasgians from the northern parts of the Danube and the Black Sea)
XXXIII. 9. Migrations of the Arimii in Italy.
The most ancient Pelasgian tribe, which we find settled near the seven hills of
Rome, had in the historical traditions of the Etruscans the
name Ramnes and Ramnenses (Varro, L. L.
lib. V. 55).
According to Dionysius of
Halicarnassus, the upper part of the hill Aventin had once been called Remoria (lib. I. c. 85-87), Remonium and Remonia by Plutarch (Oeuvres,
vol. I. Ed. 1784, Romulus, p. 79, 81). We also find the same tradition in the
national epic poem of Ennius: Romulus and Remus
quarreled about the naming of the new city near the Tiber, Roma or Remora (at Cicero, De
div. I. 48).
Remores, writes Aurelius Victor, was in antiquity the
name of some sort of people (Orig. gent. Rom. c. 21). The same term also
appears under the form Archemores
and Archemones, as results from the
names of Vicus Archemorium or Archemonium, and Forum Archemonium, names of some older parts of Rome (Sextus Rufus, De reg. urb. Romae. Regio
VII).
Romilia, probably Romiria in the beginning, was the name
of an ancient Roman tribe, which had the first rank among the so-called rustic tribes (Varro, L. L. lib. V. 1). The territory of this tribe began near the
walls of Rome and stretched to
the sea.
The entire central region of Italy seems to have been inhabited by Arimic tribes even a long time before the founding of Rome. As results from Virgil’s Aeneid (VIII. 90), the Tiber, which separated the territory of
the Etruscans from that of the Umbri, Sabini and Latini, was called in the
ancient religious books Rumon (Servius, ad Aen. VIII. 63), and Rumor, in a rotacised form.
This archaic name, of ethnic origin, shows that during the primitive
times of Italic history both banks of the Tiber were inhabited by
an Arimic population, pastoral and agricultural.
One of the most ancient cities from the territory of the Umbrii had the name Ariminum. A bronze antique coin of this
city shows on the obverse a head with a beard and conical cap, and on the
reverse the legend ARIM. Other two
coins present the same type, and on the reverse the inscription ARIMI and ARIMNO (Mionnet, Descr.
d. med. Suppl. Tome I,p 208; C.I.L.vol
I.nr. 23). In the old religion of the Umbrii, Jove was also venerated with the
epithet armunos or armunis (Huschke, Die Iguv. Taf. IIa, 7. p. 322-323).
The vast woods of the Apennines, which separated
the Umbrii, the Sabinii and the Etruscans, were called montes Romani since obscure times (Siculus Flaccus, De condit. Agr.- Grom.vet. Ed. Lachmann, p. 137).
In these mountains the Tiber had its source,
called in ancient times Rumon and Rumor. In these mountains had once
dwelt the primitive people of Italy, the so-called Aborigines (Dionysius Hal., lib. I. 9). This was an
altered ethnic name, standing probably for Aremorici,
or Aremoricenses (like Procopius’ Arborychi instead of Armorici).
Faunus, the wise king of
the Aborigenes had been also called, as Diodorus
Siculus tells us (lib. VI. 5. 2) ’Ermas (‘Erman).
Finally, we also note here that the entire territory of Umbria, together with the
northern parts right to the lower banks of the river Pad, had in the Middle Ages
the name Romania and Romaniola (Muratorius, Scriptore, Tom. X. p. 381). The origin of this name is
without doubt predating the Roman domination, as was also the case of the
ancient name of the city “Ariminum”.
In Latium, the Arimic tribes
were scattered in various parts of this region, from the sea to the Apennines, even from very
remote times. Especially the Rutulii,
whose capital was Ardea, appear in
the national traditions of the Latins as a people of Arimic origin. Virgil mentions
one Rhamnes, as king and prophet of
the Rutulii, and another legendary hero of this people with the name Remus (Aen. IX. v. 325-327, 330).
The city Tibur, situated on the
eastern corner of Latium, which had become
a powerful, flourishing and “superb” city a long time before the founding of Rome, was also an Arimic colony. One of the ancient
representatives of this city is called Remulus
by Virgil (Aen. Lib. IS. V. 360).
In the history of Latium, the Arimic
element appears dominant even before the founding of Rome. One of the
ancient kings of Latium is called by Livy, Romulus Sylvius (lib. I. c. 3), by Orosius, Aremulus (Hist. lib. I. 20), and by Plutarc, Romis (Oeuvres,
vol. I. Romulus, p. 62).
In the mountainous regions of the Apennines, near the Latinii
and the Campanii, dwelt the Samnitii,
a pastoral and agricultural people, loving glory and independence. They were
part of the same Arimic nation as the Sabinii and Oscii. The oldest and most
powerful citadel of theirs was called Romulea,
as named by Livy (lib. X. 17), was
situated on top of the mountain, and the Romans utterly destroyed it later.
In Enotria, or the lower
parts of the Italic peninsula, had once reigned according to traditions, the
king called Italus, a glorious
prince from the Arimic family. A son of Italus was called Romus (Dionysius Hal.
lib. I. 72), and a daughter of his was called Roma (Plutarc, Oeuvres,
I, 1784, Romulus). Hecateus also
mentions a city in this region with the name Erimon (Stephanus Byz.
see ‘Erimon).
To the family of the Arimii also belonged the ancient tribes of Sicily. The Sicanii or
Siculii, people of barbarian origin, had dwelt in Umbria in more ancient
times, then in Latium. From Latium, ousted by the
Aborigenes and the other Pelasgian tribes, they had passed into Lucania, and
from Lucania into Sicily, around 80 years
before the Trojan war (Dionysius Hal.
lib. I. 9, 22; Pliny, lib. III. 19; according to Tucydides – VI. 2 – the Siculii had crossed to Sicily about 300 years
before the first migration of the Greeks to this island, therefore around
1000bc).
In the times of Antonius, as Cicero tells us (Epist.
ad Att. XIV), the Sicilians were declared cives
Romani. This law was based without doubt on the ancient national tradition
that both these peoples, the Romans and the Siculii, had once had the same
origin, the same language, the same dwellings and the same common name.
In the southern parts of the island, Pliny mentions the river called Hirminium (lib. III. 14. 4), ‘Yrminos by Philist (Fragm. Hist. graec. I. 186, fr. 8), certainly a valley
inhabited in prehistoric times by a significant group of Arimic shepherds.
As we see, the Arimic tribes of the Italic peninsula appear under
various dialectal names with the ancient authors. Based on the elements which
we presented above, we sum up and reconstitute here these names, under the
following forms:
In Etruria, the ancient Arimii were called Ramnes; in Umbria, Arimini
and Armuni; in the upper parts of
the Tiber, Rumones and Rumores; on the seven hills of Rome, Remones, Remores, Archemones and Archemores; in Latium, Ramnes, Remi, Romi and Rumi; in Lucania, Erimones (Arimones); and in Sicily, Hirmini or Hurmini.
Finally, in central Italy also existed the
archaic form of Rumini, as results
from the names of the divinities Jupiter
Ruminus (Augustinus, Civ. Dei,
lib. VII. 11), Dea Rumina (Ibid,
lib. IV. 11, Varro, L. L. lib. II.
11. 5), as well as from the names of the places vicus Ruminalis (Sextus
Rufus, De reg. urb. Romae. VII), ficus
Ruminalis (Livy, lib. I. 4; Tacitus, Ann. XIII. 58), and Rumina ficus (Ovid, Fast. II. v. 411).