Praeneste fibula

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The Praeneste fibula or Præneste fibula (the "brooch of Palestrina") is a golden brooch that was once thought to be the earliest surviving specimen of the Latin language, but is now thought by most scholars to have been a hoax.

The fibula was discovered in Palestrina and is now kept at the Museo Preistorico Etnografico Luigi Pigorini in Rome.

The fibula was thought to originate from the 7th century BCE.It is inscribed with the Old Latin text:

MANIOS MED FHEFHAKED NVMASIOI

Which, in Classical Latin, is:

MANIVS ME FECIT NVMERIO

Or:

Manius fashioned me for Numerius

If the consensus is correct that the Praeneste fibula is a hoax, the true earliest surviving evidence of Latin is the Viminal Vessel, dated 100 years later to the 6th century BCE.

[edit] References

For an explanation of why the fibula is likely a 19th‑century forgery, see:

• Arthur E. Gordon, "Illustrated Introduction to Latin Epigraphy", Berkeley/Los Angeles/London 1983, ISBN 0-520-03898-3
• Larissa Bonfante, "Etruscan Life and Afterlife: A Handbook of Etruscan Studies", Wayne State University Press, Detroit, 1986

For those who continue to hold out the view that the fibula is authentic, see:

• Winfred P. Lehmann, "Historical Linguistics", Routledge; 3rd edition, January, 1993
• R. Wachter, Altlateinische Inschriften. Sprachliche und epigraphische Untersuchungen zu den Dokumenten bis 150 v. Chr. Bern etc. 1987.
• E. Formigli, Indagini archeometriche sull'autenticità della Fibula Praenestina. MDAI(R) 99 (1992) 329-343, Taf. 88-96.