In Italy , the written use of Latin had replaced Oscan — like Latin , an Italic language — and Etruscan by the end of the 1st century AD . Oscan graffiti are preserved by the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79 at Pompeii and Herculaneum , which was in the Oscan region , and a couple may date before or after an earlier regional earthquake in AD 62 . In the mid-1st century , the emperor Claudius , who had keen antiquarian interests , knew Etruscan and wrote a multivolume history of the Etruscans , but the work has not survived
eruption of Vesuvius
Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79
Languages of the Roman Empire