Sabines,

Sabines, an ancient Italian people whose original headquarters were amongst the central Apennines, but ultimately occupying an area which extended down into the western plains, even to Rome itself. They had for neighbours Umbrians, Etruscans and Latins, and Samnites (see map of Italia Antiqua). They and their near kinsmen, the Samnites, constituted a group sometimes called Sabellian; and the two or more Sabellian peoples, together with the (less nearly) related Umbrians, spoke Aryan Italic dialects, to which the name of Umbro-Sabellian has been given. According to the legend, a colony of Sabines occupied the Quirinal Hill in Rome, but were ultimately incorporated with the Latin followers of Romulus upon the Palatine, and so helped to constitute the Roman people (see ROME). The Rape of the Sabines belongs to this period of legendary history. Romulus, having difficulty in finding wives for his followers (credited with a dubious reputation as runaways and male-factors), invited the Sabines to a feast and games; and while the games were going on the garrison of the Palatine seized the unsuspecting and unprotected Sabine women, whom they carried off to be their wives. After several wars the Sabines outside of Rome were ultimately subjected (241 B.C.).