The
Aborigines were a mythical people of central
Italy, connected in legendary history with
Aeneas,
Latinus, and
Evander. They were supposed to have descended from their mountain home near
Reate[?] (an ancient Sabine town) upon
Latium, whence they expelled the
Siceli[?] and subsequently settled down as Latini under a King
Latinus. The most generally accepted etymology of the name (
ab origine), according to which they were the original inhabitants (the Greek
autochthones) of the country, is inconsistent with the fact that the oldest authorities (
e.g. Cato in his
Origines) regarded them as Hellenic immigrants, not as a native Italian people. Other explanations suggested are
arborigines, "tree-born," and
aberrigines, "nomads." Historical and ethnographical discussions have led to no result; the most that can be said is that, if not a general term, "aborigines" may be the name of an Italian stock, about whom the ancients knew no more than ourselves.
- (from an old encyclopedia)
See also: aborigine (which is the generic term for the first people who inhabit a region)
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