B.C., SO that from the beginning of the 3rd century the Marsians were in touch with a Latin-speaking community, to say nothing of the Latin colony of Carsioli (298 B.C.) farther west. The earliest pure Latin inscriptions of the district seem to be C.I.L. ix. 3,827 and 3,848 from the neighbourhood of Supinum; their character generally is of the Gracchan period, though it might be somewhat earlier.
Mommsen (Unteritalische Dialekten, p. 345) pointed out that in the social war all the coins of Pompaedius Silo have the Latin legend "Italia," while the other leaders in all but one case used Oscan.
The chief record of the dialect or patois we owe to the goddess Angitia, whose chief temple and grove stood at the south-west corner of Lake Fucinus, near the modern village of Luco. She (or they, for the name is in the plural in the Latin inscription next cited) was widely worshipped in the central highlands (Sul mo, C.I.L. ix. 3,074, Furfo Vestinorum, ibid. 3,515) as a goddess
of healing, especially skilled to cure serpent bites by charms and the herbs of the Marsian woods. Her worshippers naturally prac tised the same arts—as their descendants do (see A. de Nino's col lection of Usi e costumi abruzzesi), their country being in Rome counted the home of witchcraft ; see Hor., Sat. 1, 9, 29, Epod. 17, 28, etc.
The earliest local inscriptions date from about 30o to 150 B.C. and include the bronze of Lake Fucinus, which seems to record a votive offering to Angitia. The language of these inscriptions differs very slightly from Roman Latin of that date. The older form of the name of the tribe (dat. plur. Martses =Lat. Martiis) shows its derivation and exhibits the assibilation of tio- into -tso proper to many Oscan dialects (see OSCAN), but strange to classical Latin.