7. 1829.
[4431,4] Digamma. Τhe history of Rome by B. G. Niebuhr, translated by Julius Charles Hare, M. A. and
Connop Thirlwall, M. A.
fellows of Trinity college, Cambridge. the first
volume. Cambridge, 1828. {+sezione intitolata: Ancient Italy;} p. 17. not. 33. Micali
4432 with great plausibility explains the Oscan
Viteliu on the Samnite denary of the same
age (the age of the Marsic war) to be the Sabellian form of Italia. Τ. I. p. 52.
Τhe analogy of Latium,
Samnium, gives Italium, or with the digamma Vitalium, Vitellium;
and Vitellio is like Samnio. Vitalia is mentioned by Servius among the various names
of the country: on Aen.
VIII. 328. - p. 18. In the Tyrrhenian or the ancient Greek
(not. 36. In the former, according to Apollodorus
Bibl. II. 5. 10.; in the latter, according to
Timaeus quoted by Gellius ΧI. 1. Hellanicus of Lesbos cited by
Dionysius, I. 35, does not
determine the language. Tyrrhenian however here does not mean Etruscan,
but Pelasgic, as in the Tyrrhenian glosses in Hesychius.) italos
or itulos meant an ox. Τhe mythologers
connected this with the story of Hercules driving the Geryon's herd (not. 37. Hellanicus and Apollodorus in the passages just referred
to) through the country: Timaeus, in whose days such things were no longer thought
satisfactory, saw an allusion to the abundance of cattle in
Italy. (not. 38. Gellius ΧI. 1. Piso, in Varro de re r. II. 1, borrowed the
explanation from the Greeks.) .... In the Oscan name of the country
(dell'antica Italia), which, as we have seen, was
Vitellium, there is an evident reference to Vitellius, the son of Faunus and of Vitellia, a goddess worshipt in many parts
of Italy. (not. 39. Suetonius Vitell. I.)
*
- Altrove
l'autore nota che Vitulus, cognome di una famiglia
romana, non è che Italus; preso, come tanti altri, dal
paese originario della famiglia. (7. 1829.).
