VESTINI, an ancient Sabine tribe which occupied the east ern and northern bank of the Aternus in central Italy. It entered into the Roman alliance, retaining its own independence, in 304 B.C., 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. The local dialect, which belongs to the north Oscan group, survived certainly to the middle of the 2nd century B.C. (see the inscrip tions cited below) and probably until the Social War. The oldest Latin inscriptions of the district are C.I.L. ix. 3,521, from Furfo
with Sullan alphabet, and 3,574, which cannot be earlier than I00 B.C. (see LATIN LANGUAGE). The Latin first spoken by the Vestini was not that of Rome, but that of their neighbours the Marsi and Aequi (qq.v.). 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.