OSCI

Osci, also known as Oscans, were an ancient Italic people who inhabited parts of southern Italy in the first millennium BCE. They spoke Oscan, a member of the Osco-Umbrian branch of the Italic language family, and are known primarily from Latin and Greek writers as well as numerous inscriptions. The Oscan language was written using an alphabet derived from the Etruscan script and is attested from around the 5th century BCE into the early centuries CE.

Geographically, the Osci occupied a broad zone in the south-central Italian peninsula, with core areas in parts of Campania and neighboring regions. Their territory overlapped with other Italic groups, including the Sabellians and Samnites, and they formed a mosaic of tribes and communities rather than a single centralized state.

In political terms, the Osci consisted of multiple tribes and federations that engaged in alliances, rivalries, and intermittent war with neighboring groups and with the early Roman Republic. As Rome expanded southward, Oscan-speaking polities were gradually absorbed into Roman influence and, by the late Republic, had been incorporated into Roman provincial and municipal structures. The extinction of distinct Oscan political identities occurred over the ensuing centuries, though the language and cultural practices persisted in limited forms for some time.

Today, Osci is of particular interest to historians and linguists studying Italic languages and the ethnogenesis of ancient Italy. Evidence from inscriptions, material remains, and toponymic traces helps illuminate Oscan social organization, religion, and daily life.