Published in 1897, this two-volume work by Robert Seymour Conway (1864 1933), classical scholar and comparative philologist, later Hulme Professor of Latin at the University of Manchester, aims to shed light on the origins of the Latin language and Roman institutions by careful examination of the dialects and customs of Rome's neighbours. The work is laid out in geographical order, beginning with Southern Oscan in Sicily and moving north through Volscian and Latinian to conclude with Umbrian and Picenum, so that the influence of one dialect on its neighbours can be traced. This first volume...

Published in 1897, this two-volume work by Robert Seymour Conway (1864 1933), classical scholar and comparative philologist, later Hulme Professor of Latin at the University of Manchester, aims to shed light on the origins of the Latin language and Roman institutions by careful examination of the dialects and customs of Rome's neighbours. The second volume provides an outline of the grammar of the Italic dialects, the surviving remains of which were collected in the first volume. There are six dialect alphabets given, followed by a sketch of their accidence and syntax. The first appendix...