MARSI  , an

ancient people of Italy, whose chief centre was Marruvium, on the eastern shore of Lake Fucinus . They are first mentioned as members of a confederacy with the Vestini, Paeligni and Marrucini (Liv. viii . 29, cf. viii . 6, and Polyb. ii . 24, 12) . They joined the Samnites in 308 B.C . (Liv. ix . 41), and on their submission became allies of Rome in 304 B.C . (Liv. ix . 45) . After a short-lived revolt two years later, for which they were punished by loss of territory (Liv. x . 3), they were readmitted to the Roman alliance and remained faithful down to the social war, their contingent (e.g .

Liv. xliv . 46) being always regarded as the

flower of the Italian forces (e.g . Hor . Od. ii . 20, 18) . In this war, which, owing to the prominence of the Marsian rebels is often known as the Marsic War, they fought bravely against odds under their leader Q . Pompaedius Silo, and, though they were frequently defeated, the result of the war was the enfranchisement of the allies (see RoME: History, " The Republic ") . The Marsi were a hardy mountain people, famed for their simple habits and indomitable courage . It was said that the Romans had never triumphed over them or without them (Appian) . They were also renowned for their magicians, who had strange remedies for various diseases . The Latin colony of Alba Fucens near the north-west corner of the lake was founded in the adjoining Aequian territory in 303, so that from the beginning of the 3rd century the Marsians were in touch with a Latin-speaking community, to say nothing of the Latin colony of Carsioli (298 B.C.) farther west . The earliest pure Latin inscriptions of the district seem to be C.I.L. ix .

3827 and 3848 from the neighbourhood of Supinum; its

character generally is of the Gracchan period, though it might be somewhat earlier . - Mommsen (Unteritalische Dialekten, p . 345) pointed out that in the social war all the coins of Pompaedius Silo have the Latin legend " Italia," while the other leaders in all but one case used Oscan . The chief record of the dialect or patois we owe to the goddess Angitia, whose chief temple and grove stood at the south-west corner of Lake Fucinus, near the inlet to the emissarius of Claudius (restored by Prince Torlonia), and the modern village of Luco . She (or they, for the name is in the plural in the Latin inscription next cited) was widely worshipped in the central highlands (Sulmo, C.I.L. ix . 3074, Furfo Vestinorum, ibid . 3515) as a goddess of healing, especially skilled to cure serpent bites by charms and the herbs of the Marsian woods . Her worshippers naturally practised the same arts—as their descendants do (see A. de Nino's charming collection of Usi e costumi abruzzesi), their country being in Rome counted the home of witchcraft; see Hor . Sat . 1, 9, 29, Epod . 17, 28, &c . The earliest local inscriptions date from about 300 to 150 B.C. and include the interesting and difficult bronze of Lake Fucinus, which seems to record a votive offering to Angitia, if A(n)ctia, as is probable, was the local form of her name .

Their

language differs very slightly from Roman Latin of that date; for apparently contracted forms like Fougno instead of Fucino may really only be a matter of spelling . In final syllables the diphthongs ai, ei, oi, all appear as e . On the other hand, the older form of the name of the tribe (dat. plur . Martses = Lat . Martiis) shows its derivation and exhibits the assibilation of -tio- into -tso- proper to many Oscan dialects (see OSCA LINGUA) but strange to classical Latin . See R . S . Conway, The Italic Dialects, pp . 290 seq . (from which some portions of this article are taken by permission of the syndics of the Camb . Univ . Press) ; on the Fucino-Bronze, ib. p .

294 . (R . S .