Vefere, Sab. s. v. Fedus.

Veia, Osc. Fest. p. 368: "Veia apud Oscos dicebatur plaustrum." Vesperna, Sab. s. v. Scensa.

Vesta, Volcanus, Vertumnus, Sab. s. v. Feronia.

§ 3. The Bantine Table.

The most important fragment of the Oscan language is carved on a bronze tablet, which was found in the year 1793 at Oppido, on the borders of Lucania, and which is called the Tabula Bantina on account of the name Bansa occurring in the inscription, which seems to refer to the neighbouring city of Bantia in Apulia'. On the other side is a Latin inscription, which will be considered in its proper place.

The Oscan Bantine inscription contains thirty-eight lines or fragments of lines. Of these lines four to twenty-six are complete at the beginning; and lines eleven to thirty-three have preserved the ends entire: consequently there are some sixteen lines which may be read throughout. Of course, the certainty and facility of the interpretation vary materially with the completeness of the fragment; and while many passages in the intermediate lines may be made out almost word for word, we are left to mere conjecture for the broken words and sentences at the beginning and end. The following is a copy of

3..

s. nom [f]ust, izic ru

suæ le) l(e)p(tif)us. q. moltam. angit

deirast maimas carneis . senateis tanginud. am

4. XL. . osii. . ioc. egmo. comparascuster. suae . pis. pertemust. pruter pan.

.

5. deivatud. sipus. komonei perum. dolom. mallom. siom. ioc. comono mais. egm

1 It was bought for the Museo Borbonico for 400 scudi.

8. comono ni. hipid

7. tanginud. maimas. carneis. pertumum. piei ex. comono. pertemest. izic. eizeic. zicel. pis. pocapit. post. post. exac. comono. hafiert. meddis. dat. castrid. loufi[rud]. [auti]

9. en eituas. factud. pous touto. deivatuns . tanginom. deicans. siom. dat. eizasc. idic. tangineis.

10. deicum. pod. valaemom. touticom. tadait. ezum. nep fe[f]acid. pod. pis. dat. eizac. egmod. min.

11. deivaid. dolud.malud.

suae. pis. contrud. exeic.

fefacust. auti. comono. hipust. molto. etan. 12. to. estud. n. DD. in. suae. pis. ionc. fortis. meddis. moltaum. herest. ampert.minstreis. aeteis.

13. eituas. moltas. moltaum. licitud.

suae. pis.

prumeddixud. altrei. castrous. auti. eituas

14. zicolom. dicust. izic. comono. ni. hipid. ne. pon. op. toutad. petirupert. urust. sipus. perum . dolom.

15. mallom. in. trutum. zico. touto peremust · petiropert. neip. mais. pomtis. com. preiratud.

actud.

16. pruter. pam. medicat. inom. didist. in . pon . posmom con. preivatud. urust. eisucen.

ziculud.

17. zicolom. XXX. nesimum. comonom. ni. hipid. suae. pis. contrud exeic. fefacust. ionc.

suae. pis.

18. herest. meddis. moltaum. licitud. ampert. mistreis. aeteis. eituas. licitud. pon . censtur.

19. [B]ansae. tautam. censazet. pis. ceus. Bantins. Just censamur. esuf. in. eituam. poizad. ligud.

20. aisc (?) censtur . censaum. anget. uzet . aut. suae . pis. censtomen. nei. cebnust. dolud. mallud. 21. in. eizeik. vincter. esuf. comenei. lamatir. prmeddixud. toutad. praesentid. perum . dolum . 22. mallom. in. amiricatud. allo. famelo. in. ei. siuom. paei. eizeis fust. pa. ancensto · fust ·

23. toutico. estud. pr. suae praefucus . pod .post . exac. Bansae. fust. suae pis. op. eizois .

com.

24. a[l]trud.ligud. acum. herest. auti. prumedicatud. manimaserum. eizazunc. egmazum.

25. pas. ex. aiscen. ligis. scriftas. set. nep. him . pruhipid. mais. sicolois. x.nesimois.

pis. contrud.

suae.

26. exeic. pruhipust. molto. etanto. estud. n. D. in. suae . pis. ionk. meddis. moltaum. herest. licitud.

27. [ampert] minstreis. aeteis. eituas. moltas. mol

taum. licitud

28. [ni.pis.fu]id. nei. suae

29..

pr. censtur. Bansae.

9. fust. nep. censtur. fuid. nei. suae. pr. fust. in. suae . pis. pr. in. suae.

uii.q.pis.tacus. im. nerum.fust .izic.

post. eizuc. tr. pl. ni . fuid. suae . pis.

30....[p]ocapid. Bansa[e]. [f]ust. izik.amprufid. facus

izic

$ 4.

Commentary on the Bantine Table.

In the first line we have only the words fust = fuerit and is, which are of frequent occurrence.

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AIRE.

In 1. 2 we read: Q. moltam angit. u. Q. is the common abbreviation for quaestor, whose business it was to collect such fines compare Mus. Ver. p. 469: QVAISTORES MVLTATICOD DEDERONT. We have seen above that multa s. molta is recognised as a Sabello-Oscan word; and it is of course equivalent to the Latin multa. As anter is the Oscan form of inter, we might suppose that an-git.u was for in-igit .0. But a comparison of the Oscan inscriptions XXIV. 18 (p. 71 Leps.): meddíss degetasiús araget, and XXVII. 38 (p. 86 Leps.): meddís degetasis aragetud multas (which are obviously, with the common change of d to r, meddix degetasius adiget and meddix degetasius adigito multas), would rather show that angit.u[d] is an abbreviation of adigito, the dental liquid representing the dental mute.

L. 3: deivast maimas karneis1 senateis tanginud. The first word is the conjunctive of divavit, which occurs in the inscription quoted by Lanzi (Saggio, III. p. 533), and we have the imperative deivatud in 1. 5, deivatuns in 1. 9, and deivaid in 1. 11. Deivo must be identical with divo in Lanzi's inscription, which runs thus: V. ATII DIVAVIT TUNII IRINII II. T. IRINII PATRII DONO MIIIL 1. LIB T. We have also deivames on the Crecchio Inscription, and Knötel would connect the verb with devoveo, (Zeitschr. f. d. Alterthumsw. 1850, p. 419). Etymologically this is obviously wrong: but if we adopt Mommsen's derivation from divus, so that divare means consecrare or divinum facere, the meaning will come to this. Maimas karneis must mean maximi (in old Latin maximae) cardinis. So mais in l. 15, 25, signifies magis; comp. the French mais: and d is often omitted in derivatives from the Latin, as in mi-nuit for media nocte. The cardo maximus refers to the main line in the templum in Roman land-surveying, and thus in 1. 7, we have maimas karneis pertumum. As deivo and pertemo are manifestly transitive verbs (cf. comono pertemest, 1.7), the gen. maimas

1 In the second transcription I have substituted k for c, for the reasons given by Lepsius (ad Inser. p. 150).

karneis must be explained as an expression of measurement or value. Tanginud, which occurs elsewhere, was probably an ablative case, corresponding to the accus. tanginom (1. 9). We have the same phrase, senateis tanginud, in the Cippus Abellanus, I. 8; and it is probably equivalent to the de senatuos sententiad of the senatus-consultum de Bacchanalibus. If so, the root tag- (with nasal insertion ta-n-g-) occurred in Oscan as well as in Greek.

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L. 4: sua pis pertemust. The first two words, suæ pis, i. e. si quis, are of constant occurrence in this Table. For the form of sua si, see New Cratylus, § 205. So suad = sic (Müller, Suppl. Ann. in Fest. p. 411). Pertemust is the perf. subjunctive of a verb pertimere, which seems to mean "to portion off" or "divide:" comp. pertica, templum, Téμevos, Téμvw, con-temno, &c.

L. 5: komonei seems to be the locative of a word com-unus, synonymous with com-munis, and designating the ager publicus, i. e. To kovov. Perum dolum mallom siom=per dolum malum suum. The preposition per-um seems to be a compound like its synonym am-pert (12, &c.). Iok komo-[no] is perhaps hoc com-unum: ionc stands in this inscription for hunc or eum-ce.

L. 6: -kas amnud. In Lepsius' transcript this is written as one word; but in the original there is a vacant space between the two, and -kas is clearly the end of some mutilated word, the beginning of which was broken off from the end of the preceding line. Amnud occurs again in this line, and also in the Cippus Abellanus, 1. 17. It seems to be the abl. of some noun. Mommsen translates it causa, and some such meaning is required. At any rate, it governs a genitive in both clauses of this comparative sentence. For egmo is a feminine noun, as appears from its ablative egmad, 1. 10; gen. pl. egmazum, 1. 24. Consequently -kas must represent the gen. sing. of some adjective agreeing with eg-mas. Mommsen derives eg-mo from egere, so that it means "need or business." As umbrateis is clearly imperati (cf. embratur with imperator), and as kadeis may be the genitive of some noun signifying "permission" (cf. cadum, χα-ν-δάνω, χατέω, careo, &c.), the whole passage will mean: magis negotii proprii causâ, quam alicujus imperati aut permissi causâ. Pieis and piei in this line and the next are the gen. and dat. of pis quis.

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