Massive Matese: a winter view

San Gregorio Matese: panorama

A little bronze statue representing a sannita warrior

The Sabelli map

The Sannio was the inner plateau at the center of southern Italy. It was bordered to the north from the river Sangro to the south from the river Ofanto, to the east from the Tavoliere of Puglia, and to the west from the Campania Plain.

Its predominant characteristic is the gray limestone mountain cliffs that are not passable. They are obstructed especially on the west boundary. The mountains are the main cause of the material and cultural isolation that has characterized the Sannio through the centuries.

In the Sannio, the Apennini is not a logical mountainous chain of continuous features, but rather a complicated maze of bulky spurs and alternate recesses from valleys often without outlets. To the north the slopes of the Maiella, in the southern Sannio it winds off to the contours of Mt. Taburno and even more to the south the Irpini mountains. The western boundary of the Sannio has a large natural bastion, the harsh massive Matese, the ancient Mons Tifernus. This is Mt. Miletto, which is about 40 km. long and 25 km. wide, with a lake at its summit. It rises beyond 2000 meters in altitude. It is visible almost to the Adriatic Sea and dominates the spacious valley of the Volturno River.

Nothing much is known of the men that lived in the territory. The population "osco-umbre" that included also the Sanniti (in language osca "SAFINIM"), had been developed from the merger between "Aborigine" with "Indo-European". In 600 AD there existed a distinguished and separate tribe called Osco-Umbre. In 500 the historically famous people known as the Sanniti were clearly identifiable. They had the uncontested control of the Sannio.

The "Sanniti" were a part of those "Italici" people who spoke from variations of there Indo European existence. This was seen for the first time certainly in Italy during the Iron Age.
Today the students use the Sabelli term in order to designate the people of central Italy who spoke the dialect of the osco group.

Therefore Sabelli is a generic term in order to designate the type of people "osco". These were the Sanniti, the Frentani, the Sidicini, the Campania, the Lucani, the Apuli, the Bruzi and the Mamertini. It can be said that Sabelli people were all who spoke the true and actual osco, a language that phonetically recalled an archaic Latin with endings of harsh and guttural alliteration.