Tabula Bantina

A bronze tablet found near Bantia, on the borders of Lucania and Apulia, in 1793, and now in the Naples Museum. It contains on one side thirty-three lines in Oscan, more or less complete, and on the other an inscription in Latin. The Oscan portion relates to the local affairs of Bantia (as to fines, oaths, penalties, etc.), and the Latin portion gives part of a local law. It is the most important source in existence for knowledge of the Oscan language. The Latin text will be found in Allen's Early Latin (Boston, 1880); the Oscan is printed in Mommsen's Oskische Studien (Berlin, 1845) and in Zvetaieff's Sylloge Inscriptionum Oscarum (St. Petersburg, 1878). See also the article Osci.