Oenotrians#Language
{{Short description|Semilegendary village of the peninsula italica}}
The Oenotrians or Enotrians were an ancient Italic people who inhabited a territory in Southern Italy from Paestum to southern Calabria. By the sixth century BC, the Oenotrians had been absorbed into other Italic tribes.
Etymology
A likely derivation of the ethnonym Oenotrian is the Greek {{Transliteration|grc|oînos}} ({{langx|grc|οἶνος||wine|label=none}}),Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, {{lang|grc|2=[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=}lPerseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Doi%29%3Dnos1 "οἶνος"]}}, A Greek-English Lexicon, Perseus Project as the Oenotrians inhabited a territory rich in vineyards, with Oenotria or Enotria ({{langx|grc|Οἰνωτρία|Oinōtría|label=none}}) being extended to refer to the entirety of Southern Italy.McGee, Harold. On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen. Simon and Schuster, 2004, {{ISBN|0-684-80001-2}}, p. 716. "... calling southern Italy Oenotria, 'land of the grape'. Over the next couple of centuries, Rome advanced the art of winemaking considerably." Hesychius mentions the word {{Transliteration|grc|oínōtron}} ({{lang|grc|οἴνωτρον}}), a kind of a vine stake.Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, {{lang|grc|2=[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Doi%29%2Fnwtron "οἴνωτρον"]}}, A Greek-English Lexicon, Perseus Project
History
It is thought that the Oenotrians represent the southern branch of a very old ethno-linguistic group, different from the proto-Latin one, which occupied the Tyrrhenian Sea area from Liguria to Sicily (Ligurian/Sicanian layer).{{cite book|last1=Sciarretta|first1=Antonio|title=Toponomastica d'Italia. Nomi di luoghi, storie di popoli antichi|language=it|date=2010|publisher=Mursia|location=Milan|isbn=978-88-425-4017-5|pages=174–194}} They are generally depicted as belonging to the Pelasgians.{{Cite book|last=Le Glay |first=Marcel|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/760889060|title=A history of Rome|date=2009|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|isbn=978-1-4051-8327-7|oclc=760889060}} According to Antoninus Liberalis and Hellanicus, their arrival triggered the migration of the Elymians to SicilyDionysius of Halicarnassus, [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Dionysius_of_Halicarnassus/1B*.html Roman Antiquities]. Book I, 22 (LacusCurtius) around 1260 BC.
Ancient authors from the 1st century BC state that Oenotria was named after Oenotrus, the youngest of the fifty sons of Lycaon who migrated there from Arcadia in Peloponnese, Greece.Pausanias, [http://www.theoi.com/Text/Pausanias8A.html "Arcadia"], Description of Greece, 8.3.5 (Theoi Project)Dionysius of Halicarnassus, [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Dionysius_of_Halicarnassus/1B*.html Roman Antiquities]. Book I, 11–13 (LacusCurtius)Eusebius, [https://topostext.org/work/531#102 Chronography], 102 (topostext Project) However, inscriptions from the 6th or the 5th century BC in the ancient Oenotrian settlement of Tortora reveal that they spoke an Italic language.{{cite book |last1=Lazzarini |first1=Letizia |last2=Poccetti |first2=Paolo |date=2001 |title=Il mondo enotrio tra VI e V secolo a. C. L'iscrizione paleoitalica da Tortora |language=it |url= |location= |publisher=Loffredo Editore |isbn=9788880968825}}{{cite book |last=Mollo |first=Fabrizio |date=2001 |title=Archeologia per Tortora: frammenti dal passato |location=Potenza |publisher=Societa Tipografica Ed.}}
Virgil (70–21 BC) mentions them as the settlers whose descendants now call their land Italy after the name of their leader Italus.{{Cite book|title = The Aeneid|last = Virgil|publisher = Penguin Classics|year = 2006|isbn = 9780143105138|location = New York|pages = 65}} Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD) mentions that "opposite Velia are Pontia and Isacia, both known under the name of Oenotrides, a proof that Italy was formerly possessed by the Oenotrians".Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 3.85
The settlement of the Greeks with the first stable colonies such as Metapontum pushed the Oenotrians inland and started a war of attrition with the Greek colonies, which they plundered more than once.{{Citation needed|date=January 2012}}
From the 5th century BC the Oenotrians disappeared under the pressure of the Lucanians.
Language
{{See also|Pre-Samnite language}}
In 1991, inscriptions dating from the 6th or the 5th century BC were discovered in the ancient Oenotrian settlement of Tortora, Calabria, and revealed that the Oenotrians spoke an Italic language.{{cite book |last1=Lazzarini |first1=Letizia |last2=Poccetti |first2=Paolo |date=2001 |title=Il mondo enotrio tra VI e V secolo a. C. L'iscrizione paleoitalica da Tortora |url= |location= |publisher=Loffredo Editore |isbn=9788880968825}}{{cite book |last=Mollo |first=Fabrizio |date=2001 |title=Archeologia per Tortora: frammenti dal passato |location=Potenza |publisher=Societa Tipografica Ed.}}
References
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