The Aborigines and Latins

Summary

It is one of the most credible traditions handed down from the earliest times, that the primitive race of the Latins had dwelt about mount Velino and the lake of Celano as far as Carseoli and toward Reate, and had been driven thence onward by the Sabines who came from Aquila. This was Cato's account; and if Varro, who enumerated the towns they had possessed in those parts, was not imposed upon, not only were the sites of those towns distinctly preserved, as well as their names, but also other information concerning; them, such as writings alone can transmit through so many centuries. Their capital Lista was lost by a surprise; and the exertions of many years to recover it by expeditions from Reate proved fruitless. Withdrawing from that district, they came down the Anio; and, even at Tibur, Antemnæ, Ficulea, Tellenalo, and farther on at Crustumerium and Aricia, they found Siculi, whom they subdued or expelled. That Præneste was also a town of the Siculi, seems to be implied by the statement, that it formerly bore the Greek name of Stephane.

This primitive race was called by the Romans Aborigines, a word supposed to signify ancestors, but which it is surely simpler to interpret, the original inhabitants of the country, answering to the Greek Autochthones.