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The Roman History: The Reign of Augustus,
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Daniel
Archaeologically speaking the Romans were a mix of majority Latins, a large minority of Sabines, and a small minority of Etruscans in the upper classes. Prior to conquering the rest of Latium they spoke archaic Latin, though since their early kings were Etruscan it was likely to have been heavily influenced by Etruscan to a larger extent than their Latin neighbors who were not ruled by Etruscans.
We can see an example of the archaic Latin they spoke from the Lapis Satricanus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lapis_S... This is a relic from roughly the foundation of the Republic before they had conquered Latium, and Latin at this time still had many archaic forms inherited from Proto-Italic and Proto-Indo European.
We can see an example of the archaic Latin they spoke from the Lapis Satricanus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lapis_S... This is a relic from roughly the foundation of the Republic before they had conquered Latium, and Latin at this time still had many archaic forms inherited from Proto-Italic and Proto-Indo European.
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