s of
several places and families which are evidently of Roman derivation.[Q]

The inhabitants these emigrants found in that place of refuge could not
but be a mixture of the Tuscans and original Lepontii; and the two
languages which met upon this occasion must, at the very first, have had
some affinity; as the Tuscan, which derived immediately from the Greek,
is known to have had a great share in the formation of the Roman. But as
it is generally observed, that the more polished people introduce their
native tongue wherever they go to reside in any considerable numbers,
the arrival of these successive colonies must gradually have produced a
considerable change in the language of the country in which they
settled;[R] and this change gave rise to the dialect since called Ladin,
probably from the name of the mother country of its principal
authors.[S]

Although the name of _Romansh_, which the whole language bears, seems to
be a badge of Roman servitude, yet the conquest of that nation, if ever
effected, could not have produced a great alteration in a language which
must already have been so similar to their own; and its general name may
as well be attributed to the pacific as to the hostile Romans. But when
we consider that a coalition of the two main dialects, which differ so
far as not to be reciprocally understood, must have been the inevitable
consequence of a total reduction; and that such a coalition is known
never to have taken place, we may lay the greater stress upon the many
passages of ancient authors,[T] in which it is implied that the boasted
victories of the Romans over the Rhaeti, for which public honours had
been decreed to L. Munatus, M. Anthony, Drusus, and Augustus, amounted
to no more than frequent repulses of those hardy people into their
mountains; out of which their want of sufficient room and sustenance,
(which in our days drives considerable numbers into the services of
foreign powers) compelled them at times to make desperate excursions in
quest of necessaries. And we may also from these collected authorities
be induced to give the greater credit to the commentator of Lucan,[U]
and to the modern historians,[V] who positively assert, that the people
living near the sources of the Rhine and the Inn were never totally
subdued by the Roman arms; but only repelled in their attempts to harass
their neighbours.

This whole country, however, from its central situation, could not but
be annumerated to