Sabine

/say"buyn/, adj.

1. of or belonging to an ancient people of central Italy who lived chiefly in the Apennines northeast of Rome and were subjugated by the Romans about 290 B.C.

n.

2. one of the Sabine people.

3. the Italic language of the Sabines.

[1350-1400; ME < L Sabinus]

/say"buyn, -bin/ for 1; /seuh been"/ for 2, n.

1. Wallace Clement (Ware), 1868-1919, U.S. physicist: pioneered research in acoustics.

2. a river flowing SE and S from NE Texas, forming the boundary between Texas and Louisiana and then through Sabine Lake to the Gulf of Mexico. ab. 500 mi. (800 km) long.

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Any member of an ancient Italic tribe located east of the Tiber River.

According to legend, Romulus invited them to a festival and then carried off ("raped") their women to provide wives for his men. The second king of Rome, Numa Pompilius, probably a Sabine, is credited with creating a great number of the early Roman religious institutions and practices. Later groups displaced the Sabines from Rome. The Romans conquered them and granted them partial citizenship in 290 BC; they became full citizens in 268.

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▪ ancient Italic people

Latin  Sabinus , plural  Sabini 

 member of an ancient Italic tribe located in the mountainous country east of the Tiber River. They were known for their religious practices and beliefs, and several Roman institutions were said to have derived from them. The story recounted by Plutarch that Romulus, the founder of Rome, invited the Sabines to a feast and then carried off (raped) their women, is legendary. Though there was a considerable Sabine infiltration into Rome, the view that the Sabines conquered the city in the first half of the 5th century BC is improbable; rather, the Romans had many skirmishes with the Sabines before their victory in 449. Nothing is known thereafter until in 290 the Sabines were conquered and granted civitas sine suffragio; in 268 they received full Roman citizenship.

      The Sabines probably spoke Oscan. No inscription has survived of their dialect, but a large number of single words are attributed to them by Latin writers. The tradition that the Sabines were the parent stock of the Samnite tribes is probably correct.

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