Sabine

 

(săbēn') , river, c.575 mi (925 km) long, rising on the prairies NE of Dallas, Tex. It flows SE across Texas, then south to mark the Texas–Louisiana line. Near its mouth it broadens to form Sabine Lake (c.17 mi/27 km long; c.7 mi/11.3 km wide), then goes through Sabine Pass to the Gulf of Mexico. The Neches River flows into the lake. Port Arthur, Tex., is on Sabine Lake, and Orange, Tex., is on the river. The Sabine–Neches Canal divides above Port Arthur, the west branch leading up the Neches River to Beaumont and the east branch flowing to Orange. Part of the Intracoastal Waterway, it permits oceangoing vessels to reach these cities.

The Sabines (Latin Sabini - singular Sabinus) were an Italic tribe that lived in ancient Italy. Their language belonged to the Sabellic subgroup of Italic languages and shows some similarities to Oscan and Umbrian.

Latin-speakers called the Sabines' original territory, straddling the modern regions of Lazio, Umbria, and Abruzzo, Sabinium. To this day, it bears the ancient tribe's name in the Italian form of Sabina. Within the modern region of Lazio (or Latium), Sabina constitutes a sub-region, situated north-east of Rome, around Rieti.

The ancient Sabines inhabited Latium before the founding of Rome. Legend says that Romans abducted Sabine women to populate the newly built town, resulting in conflict ended only by the women throwing themselves and their children between the armies of their fathers and their husbands.

The Rape of the Sabine Women ("rape" in this context meaning "kidnapping" rather than its modern meaning) became a common motif in art; the women ending the war forms a less frequent but still reappearing motif.

Studies have found many relationships between the Romans and the Sabines, especially in the fields of religion and mythology. In fact, many Sabine deities and cults developed in Rome, and many areas of the town (like the Quirinale) had once served as Sabine centers.

The area of Sabina today has become a tourist destination, with plenty of interesting medieval villages; and arguably best known for its production of olive oil.

Origins

According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, many Roman historians (including Porcius Cato and Gaius Sempronius) regarded the origins of the Romans (descendants of the Aborigines) as Greek despite the fact that their knowledge was derived from Greek legendary accounts.^[1] The Sabines, specifically, were first mentioned in Dionysius's account for having captured the city of Lista by surprise, which was regarded as the mother-city of the Aborigines.^[2] There was still debate among ancient historians pertaining to the specific origins of the Sabines. Zenodotus of Troezen claimed that the Sabines were originally Umbrians that changed their name after being driven from the Reatine territory by the Pelasgians. However, Porcius Cato argued that the Sabines were a populace named after Sabus, the son of Sancus (a divinity of the area sometimes called Jupiter Fidius).^[3] In another account mentioned in Dionysius's work, a group of Lacedaemonians fled Sparta since they regarded the laws of Lycurgus as too severe. In Italy, they founded the Spartan colony of Foronia (near the Pomentine plains) and some from that colony settled among the Sabines. According to the account, the Sabine habits of belligerence and frugality were known to have been derived from the Spartans.^[4]

Notable Sabines

• Numa Pompilius, legendary King of Rome
• Titus Tatius, legendary King of the Sabines
• Ancus Marcius, legendary King of Rome
• Quintus Sertorius
• Attius Clausus
• Pope Lando

Mythological references

• Ovid, Fasti (Book III 167–258)
• Ovid, Ars Amatoria (Book II 30–47)
• Livy, Ab Urbe Condita (Book I 9–13)
• Cicero, De Republica (Book II 12–14)
• Plutarch, Parallel Lives (Romulus 14–20)
• Juvenal's, Satires (Book III 81-85)

Popular references

In the 1954 MGM movie musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, the main character, a backwoodsman named Adam, encourages his six younger brothers to kidnap the women they love, citing the story of the Sabine women. All seven brothers sing a song called "Sobbin' Women" (their mispronunciation of "Sabine") as they prepare to abduct their future wives.

References

Donate to Wikimedia