Hernici
The
Hernici were an ancient people of
Italy, whose territory was in
Latium between the
Lago di Fucino and the Sacco River (
Trerus), bounded by the
Volscian on the south, and by the
Aequians and the
Marsians on the north.
They long maintained their independence, and in
486 BC were still strong enough to conclude an equal treaty with the Latins (
Dionysius of Halicarnassus viii. 64 and 68). They broke away from
Rome in 362 (
Livy vii. 6 if.) and in 306 (Livy ix. 42), when their chief town
Anagni was taken and reduced to a
praefectura, but Ferentinum, Aletrium and Verulae were rewarded for their fidelity by being allowed to remain free
municipia, a position which at that date they preferred to the
civitas.
The name of the Hernici, like that of the Volsci, is missing from the list of Italian peoples whom
Polybius (ii. 24) describes as able to furnish troops in
225 BC; by that date, therefore, their territory cannot have been distinguished from Latium generally, and it seems probable that they had then received the full Roman citizenship. The oldest Latin inscriptions of the district (from Ferentinum, C.I.L. x. 5837-5840) are earlier than the
Social War, and present no local characteristic.
There is no evidence to show that the Hernici ever spoke a really different dialect from the Latins; but one or two glosses indicate that they had certain peculiarities of vocabulary, such as might be expected among folk who clung to their local customs. Their name, however, with its
"co" termination, classes them along with the "co"-tribes, like the Volsci, who would seem to have been earlier inhabitants of the west coast of Italy, rather than with the tribes whose names were formed with the
"no"-suffix.
See Conway's
Italic Dialects (Camb. Univ. Press, 1897), pp 306ff., where the glosses and the local and personal names of the district will be found.
