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Iovilae

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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or JovILAE, a latinized form of iuvilas, the name given by the Oscan-speaking Campanians in the 5th, 4th and 3rd centuries B.C. to an interesting class of monuments, not yet fully understood. They all bear crests or heraldic emblems proper to some family or group of families, and inscriptions directing the annual performance of certain ceremonies on fixed days. While some of them are dedicated to Jupiter (in a special capacity, which our present knowledge of Oscan is insufficient to determine), others were certainly found attached to graves.

See the articles OSCA LINGUA, CAPUA, CURIAE and MESSAPII. The text of all those yet discovered (at Capua and Cumae), with particulars of similar usages elsewhere in Italy and other historical and archaeological detail, is given by R. S. Conway in The Italic Dialects (Cambridge, 1897, pp. En ff.). A briefer but valuable discussion of the chief characteristics of the group will be found in R. von Planta's Oskisch-umbrische Grammatik, ii. 631 ff., and a summary description in C. D. Buck's OscoUmbrian Grammar, 247. (R. S. C.)