Oscans

Oscans, one of the chief branches of the Italic division of the Aryan family, were regarded as the aborigines of central Italy south of Latium by the Greeks, who called them Opici, from ops, "land," (whence Opsci, Osci); they were Romanised soon after the Samnite Wars, but their language, a sister to Latin, presenting some marked phonetic peculiarities, long survived in the hilly districts. Of this language the most interesting record is the Agnone bronze, found (1848) in a ruined temple and written on both sides from right to left in an old Italic alphabet like the Etruscan; date unknown, but probably about 150 B.C.