Sabines

The Sabines were an ancient Italic people who inhabited the central Apennines of Italy, in a region later called Sabinum, north and east of Rome. Their homeland, the Sabine Hills and surrounding valleys, lay between the Tiber and the Adriatic-influenced plains, in areas that would later be incorporated into the Roman state.

The Sabines spoke a language of the Italic branch, closely related to Latin and Umbrian. They were organized into tribes and autonomous towns rather than a single centralized kingdom. Their religious practices and material culture shared affinities with neighboring Italic peoples, and their political and military life contributed to the broader dynamics of early central Italy.

In Roman myth and early history, the Sabines are most famous for the episode known as the Rape of the Sabine Women, when Roman men abducted Sabine women during a festival to secure wives for themselves. The ensuing conflict was resolved by intermarriage and alliance, and the Sabines progressively merged with Rome. Over time, Sabine towns and communities came under Roman rule, and Sabine land and identities were gradually assimilated into the expanding Roman state. By the late Republic, the Sabine language had ceased to be spoken as a community language, and many Sabine settlements had been incorporated as Roman municipalities or Latinized communities.

Today, the term Sabine survives mainly in geography and history. The region’s name persists in references to the Sabine lands (Ager Sabinus) and in discussions of early Italic languages and cultures. The Sabines’ legacy is primarily archaeological and literary, illustrating the complex process by which Italic peoples became part of the Roman world.