OSCAN. Oscan was spoken by the Samnites, including the Frentani, Hirpini, and Campani, and also in Northwestern Apulia, as well :is in Lueania, Bruttium, and Messana in Sicily. 'These: Sainnites, in the fifth century n.c., usurped not Only the territory but the name of the Osci• who had dwelt in Campania. The Oscan inscriptions number about 230. Most of them, however, con tain entirely, or almost entirely, proper names, and only four—the Bentine tablet, the ('ippus of AbeIla, the tablet of Agnone, and the Curse of Vibia—are of any considerable length. The first of these, the tabula Ilantina, discovered in 1793, is the longest. It is a mutilated bronze plate about fifteen by ten inches, and hears on one side an inscription of thirty-eight lines in Oscan, and on the other a Latin text thirty-two lines long. The tablet deals with legal regulations concerning the city of Bantia in J mean in . The Cippus of Abella, found near Avella in 1745, is a block of hard limestone six feet five inches high, one foot eight inches broad, and eleven inches thick. It contains in fifty-eight short lines of letters about one and one-half inches high an agreement be tween the towns of Abella and Nola concerning the joint use of a temple of Ilereules. The tablet
of Agnone, discovered in 1848, is of bronze, with a handle and chain by which it may be hung up, and measures eleven by six inches. It is in scribed on both sides with forty-seven very short lines, which contain the names of the deities to whom statues in a certain sacred grove be longed. The "Curse of \Tibia," found at Capua in 1876, consists of thirteen lines, written on a lead plate about eight and three-quarter by three inches. Besides these inscriptions there are a number of short ones of interest, especially cer tain road-makers' tablets, dedication-stones, and street-sitms found at Pompeii, and several brief heraldic inscriptions from Capin. As a speci men of Oscan, the following passage may be taken from the Bantine tablet 5-7: Ocean: deinntud sipus roulette; perum dolom mallow slum Joe romono 7n tag egm(as touti)•ns amnud pun pie isum hen teis nuti endeis monad inim idle. 8i0M chit sena (teis) tnnginud mnimns camels pert 117II 0111.
Latin: limits) seiensin-eomitio Sine dole main se ea (man na magic re(i publnete mesa ounm eniuspiam eommodi ant inemnmodi ennsa et id se de sena(tus) sententia maxi nue partis perimere.