And in its esoteric significance the Greek
tradition is possibly more truly historical than many a so-called
historical event during the period of the Olympiades, though both Hesiod
and Homer may have failed to record the former in their epics. Nor
could the Romans be referred to as the Umbro-Sabbellians, nor even as
the Itali. Peradventure, had the historians learnt something more than
they have of the Italian "Autochthones"--the Iapygians--one might have
given the "old Romans" the latter name. But then there would be again
that other difficulty: history knows that the Latin invaders drove
before them, and finally cooped up, this mysterious and miserable race
among the clefts of the Calabrian rocks, thus showing the absence of any
race affinity between the two. Moreover, Western archeologists keep to
their own counsel, and will accept of no other but their own
conjectures. And since they have failed to make anything out of the
undecipherable inscriptions in an unknown tongue and mysterious
characters on the Iapygian monuments, and so for years have pronounced
them unguessable, he who would presume to meddle where the doctors
muddle would be likely to be reminded of the Arab proverb about
proffered advice.
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