Of the ancient Etruscans, Tyrrhenians and Tuscans

 

By Andrew Stuart

 

[Originally published by the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec in Transactions, Original Series 1, Volume 1 (1829)]

 

A strange mystery hangs over this people. Like the Greeks they had cultivated the arts at a very remote period; and the monuments which still remain, attest the excellence they had reached. From the Etruscans the Romans derived the greater part of their religious institutions; and Lucumo and the colony which he brought with him, transferred to Rome a civil wisdom which laid the corner stone of the fabric that was destined to be the temple of victory and empire.

 

When Rome was first established under the commanding genius of Romulus, the power of this people was in the wane and the brave Shepherd and his successors had to combat Etruscans superior to them in knowledge, but inferior in fru­gality and in public and private virtue. The withering influ­ence of luxury and of vice had produced their usual effects, and the Etruscans were subjugated.

 

It is to be observed, that whilst in modern times, new set­tlements proceed from the low lands and along the banks of the rivers to the highlands and mountains; the exact con­verse of this must have taken place for a long time after the great deluge for reasons too obvious to be detailed. The fact is also supported by historical authority.

 

The chain of mountains which surround Italy have the form of a crescent whereof each extremity touches the sea: The earliest immigration must have been by land and either from or through this crescent.

 

The two shortest passages of the Alps are at their two ex­tremities: That of the north which leads from Carniola into Frioul, and traverses the Julian Alps is the easiest of all. The southern passage touching the Mediterranean though less easy than the former is sufficiently short, and is passable even by savages. After these two passages the most conve­nient one is that of the Tyrol and Trentin.

 

Ancient Etruria was traversed from east to west by the Arno dividing it into two nearly equal parts, whereof one ex­tended almost to the gates of Rome, and the other, bounded by Liguria, embraced a portion of the Genovese state, the valley of Magra and the old duchy of Carara and Lucca with its territory.

 

Perugia and Eugubio belonged to the Etruscans.

 

The people who inhabited this country were called by the Romans Etrusci & Tusci; by the Greeks Tyrrhenians; in their own language the general name of the nation was Rasena.

 

They spoke the same languages as the Rhœti, the ancient inhabitants of the Trentin, and the Tyrol comprizing that portion of the Alps through which flows the ancient Athesis (Pin, III. 24. Tit. Liv. v. 33.)

 

Upon these mountainers first gaining a footing in Italy, the Rhoetian tide of emigration stopped at the northern bank of the Po, where they built two towns Mantua and Adria. The strong situation of the former of these towns en­abled its inhabitants to resist the Gauls, and as it communicated with Rhetia, the Etruscans long maintained themselves in the country situated between the Po and the Adige.

 

The Etruscans soon extended their conquests to the south of the Po, and obtained possession of the whole country, from the Po to the Appenine Mountains, driving from it the old inhabitants, the Umbri, and destroying 300 of their cities.

 

Mr. Freret (Mem. de l'Acad. des Insc. et Belles Lettres, T. XXIII, p. 93,) very ingeniously fixes the period of this irruption and settlement. Varro in a passage cited by Censorinus, informs us that the Etruscans gave the name of an age to spaces of time of unequal duration and measured by the lives of particular individuals. The first of their ages was accounted from the foundation of the city or the esta­blishment of the state—it lasted till the death of the survi­vor of all the citizens born on that day. At his death a new age began measured in the same way, and so on. The Gods failed not to announce by prodigies the commencement of each new age.

 

Now the Etruscan Historians living in the eighth age of their nation estimated, according to Varro cited by Velleius Paterculus at 781 years, the duration of the seven previous ages. They added that the eighth age would be followed by a ninth and by a tenth, when (they said )the Etruscan na­tion would be extinguished.

 

But to what year does this eighth age of the Etruscan Era answer? Mr. Freret seems to have solved the problem satis­factorily. He remarks that the Etruscan soothsayers, having been consulted concerning some prodigies which had occur­red in the first year of the Consulship of Sylla, answered that these prodigies announced the termination of one of the revolutions of the world, and the beginning of a new age— that there had been already eight ages differing in manners, and in the duration of the life of man—that each of these ages formed a great year, and that the Gods gave a signal of the termination of each period by some prodigy in the Hea­vens or upon Earth.

 

Suidas says nearly the same thing citing Livy and Diodorus:—he speaks also of eight ages concluded and gives to them the name of Periods or Revolutions of the great year. Hence Mr. Freret concludes that the eighth age of the Etrus­cans ended in the year 88, before our Era—that supposing the duration of this age to have been equal to the longest of the preceding ones—it would have been of 123 years and the eighth age thus have commenced 211 years before the birth of our Saviour, to which if there be added the 781 years of the previous seven ages we have the year 992 of the Christian Era as the time of the settlement of the Etruscans in Italy. This is 240 years before Rome was founded. Denina (storia d`Italia) says that the Etruscan people seem to have been at the height of their power in Italy about four hundred years before the building of the City; but he does not give his reasons, and tho generally very accurate, he seems here to have been mis­taken.

 

Mr. Niebuhr a German Professor and son of the celebra­ted traveller of that name, was latterly sent to Italy by the King of Prussia to explore the antiquities of the ancient in­habitants of that Country, and his work has within the last few months appeared here in an English dress. He seems however to have added nothing to the knowledge which we previously had of the Etruscans.

 

The next great event in the History of this people was the irruption of the Gauls or Celts who passed the Col de Suze under Bellovesus, were met by the Etruscans on the banks of the Tesino where the latter were defeated, and the con­querors settled in the Milanese territory and in Insubria— driving the Etruscans to the north of the Po and taking pos­session of all their Cities except Mantua.

 

The Etruscans were first obliged to retreat into Umbria and thence into the territory of Picernum where they estab­lished the two towns of Atria and Cupra—the remainder of the nation traversed the Appenine Mountains threw them­selves into Campania and formed a state of 12 Cities where­of the town afterwards called Capua was the head. The Samnites by a stratagem of which Livy speaks (Tit. Liv. IV. 37.) obtained possession of this City by surprize 420 years before our Era and 332 years after the foundation of Rome and were driven from the whole of Campania after being in possession of it nearly 400 years.

 

But of Tuscany they afterwards had only Mantua Atria and Cupra. The Etruscans of Tuscany beyond the Po, and those of Campania seem to have been then separate and independent bodies.

 

From the foundation of Rome downwards, the history of the Etruscans is to be read in the historians of Rome—The whole of this nation was ultimately extirpated by Sylla, they having joined the party of Marius.

 

I am not aware of any attempt having been made to ex­plain the import of the word Rasena. San Son expressed by the Ionians Zan, Zen Zena were the original names of the Sun, the great object of ancient worship (Bryant's Mytho­logy, 1. 34.)

 

The word Rha is one of great antiquity and was the an­tient name of the river Volga.—Rhea is the most antient of the goddesses. It is found in composition in the following words Rhadamanthus, Rhabduchi, the Greek name for lictors; Rhama and Rhamna, a village of Attica in which was a celebrated temple of Amphiarus; Rhamnus another village of Attica, wherein was to be seen the statue of Ne­mesis by Agorachritus the scholar of Phidias, which statue Varro esteemed of greater excellence than any other he had ever seen; Rhapsodi; Rhapton or Rhassta the capital according to Stephanus of inner Ethiopia, inhabited by a nation called Rhapsi; Rharias one of the names of Ceres—Rhecius a charioteer of Castor and Pollux—Rhenus and Rhodanus the names of the Rhine and Rhone; Rhamnenses one of the tribes of Rome as established by Romulus. Other ex­amples might be added, but these will probably be thought sufficient. The-two words Rha and Sen give us the two first syllables of Rasena. But the Greeks in foreign words continually omitted the Nu final and substituted the Sigma which would make of it Rhce-ses, or Rhœ-sos, thus the swamps which divided Attica from the territory of Eleusinium had the appellative of Rhœsoi—converted by the Latins into Rhaetii.

 

Plutarch in his Symposiacs introduces the Etruscan Lycias a scholar of Pythogoras, and makes him affirm Pytha­goras was a Tuscan, assigning as the reason that certain of the symbols used by the Pythagorians were carefully ob­served by the Etruscans only.

 

Alciat has made a collection of the Pythagorian Symbols or precepts, they are as follow :—

 

Ne degustaris ex iis quibus est nigra cauda.

Stateram ne transilias.

Chœnici ne incidias.

Ne cuiuis dextram inieceris.

Arctum annulum ne gestato,

Ignem ne gladio fodito.

Cor ne edito.

Cibum in matellam ne immittas.

Ad finem ubi perueneris, ne retrouertare.

Tollenti onus auxiliare, deponenti nequaqueam.

Ollœ vestigium in cinere confunde.

Unguium, criniumq; prœsegmina urina non inspergenda

Quœ uncis sunt unguibus nou nutrienda.

Adversus Solem ne loquitor.

Hirundinem sub eodem tecto ne habeto.

Stragula semper circumuoluta habeto.

In annulo Dei figuram ne gestato.

Sellam oleo ne absterferus.

Coronam ne carpito.

Quœ ceciderunt ne colligito.

A gallo candido abstineas.

Panem ne frangito.

Salem apponito.

Ne libes Diis ex vitibus non amputatis.

Ne sacrificato sine farino.

Adorato circumactus.

Adoraturi sedeant.

Surgens e lecto vestigium corporis confundito.

A piscibus abstineto.

 

Those mentioned in the passage of Plutarch are the 11th, 13th, 15th, 28th.

 

There is one other given by Plutarch and which Alciat has omitted—viz. never step over a besom—Alciat has also omitted the golden rule of self examination for which we have the authority of Cicero who tells us that it was disclos­ed by a scholar of Pythagorus frementibus condiscipulis.

 

The following is a translation of it by Dr. Johnson. "Let not sleep, (says Pythagoras,) fall upon thine eye till thou hast thrice reviewed the transactions of the past day. Where have I turned aside from rectitude? What have I been doing? What have I left undone which I ought to have done? Begin thus from the first act and proceed; and in conclusion at the ill which thou has done be troubled, and rejoice at the good."

 

The inference which the interlocutor in Plutarch draws from similarity of doctrines does not seem to be conclusive. Pythagoras and the Etruscans may have drawn from a com­mon source—and that probably was Chaldean. Pythagoras (whose birth is with great probability fixed at not earlier than the year 600 before the Christian æra by Mr. Freret, Acad, d'insc. et belles Lettres, Vol. XIV.) was perfectly master of the Chaldean as well as of the Egyptian Philoso­phy and Religion. The Governments which he established were highly aristocratic. But there do not remain sufficient vestiges either of his institutions or of those of the Etruscans, to enable us to compare them as well with each other as with those of the Egyptians and Chaldeans.

 

The most antient name of the earth is Ai and Ais. Thus we find the oldest Greek word to be Gaia, subsequently Ge. The termination a. being a contraction of these two words is still preserved-in the names of many places as Mesopota­mia, Gallicia, &c. &c.

 

The Sun the great object of worship in these antient times is seldom mentioned without an epithet, or some appellative of that supposed deity. What the import of the word Rha is, I dont know and to ascertain it would require a knowledge of oriental letters. Rasena then probably imports the land of the Sun with some accompanying epithet or attribute.

 

There are many reasons to induce us to believe that the t. in Rhœti was pronounced like an S. and then the two first syllabes of Rasena correspond with the common name of their Rhœtian ancestors. Let the following passages of Vir­gil be looked at. Virg. X. 388—X. 402.—VI. 505—XII. 456.—V. 646.—III. 108.—X. 399—also the name Rhœsus given by Homer to the Thracian King whose horse Ulisses carried away at the seige of Troy.

 

It would extend this paper beyond its due limits to support the conjecture which I have formed of the history of the Etruscans previous to their irruption into Italy at the period fixed by Mr. Freret of 1000 years before the Birth of our Saviour. It may be permitted however to state generally that a more minute examination of their history will proba­bly lead us to the conclusion that they came from the antient Thrace, and that in the great displacement of nations which took place at the seige of Troy they were propelled in the in­terval between these two epochs (an interval of about 186 years) into Italy.

 

Mr. Niebuhr does not seem to have read Bryant nor to have been acquainted with the original sources of informa­tion which he refers to, when he excludes so dogmatically the name of Tyrhenians without condescending to assign any reason for the exclusion of one of the names by which they seem to have been known throughout the whole of antiquity.

 

There is a number of monuments and of inscriptions in the Etruscan tongue, published by the learned men of Italy— Of these inscriptions Mr. Freret again informs us some are in Latin others in Etruscan Letters. These latter are those in ancient letters conveyed into Greece and Iberia by the Phenicians, and are still to be found on the ancient Spanish coins. They resemble, as published by Count Lastanosa much the Samaritan Letters but have little likeness to the letters seen upon the medals of Tyre, Sidon and Cadiz.

 

Those in Latin letters are as unintelligible as the others—and all the researches into their meaning have hitherto in a great degree failed. Still, Mr. Neibuhr is in an error when he says in a note to his chapter upon the ancient Etruscans, that there are only two words of this tongue, the import of which is known.

           

There is a third Etruscan word preserved to us by Dyonisius of Halicarnassus. It is the word Tursis, which that writer informs us was adopted by the Greeks from the Etruscans and signifies a large Tower—such as was used by the Etrus­cans and copied from this people by the Greeks. From the Etruscans the Romans changed the first s to r—hence Turris. Whether our word Tower, and the French word Tour is derived from the Latin, or rather not derived direct­ly from the ancient Tor—which is the probable root of the Etruscan Tursis may be doubted. It is proper to observe, that the Greek word Tursis has no Greek root.

 

Bryant has the following observations upon the word Tor.

 

"Tor is an hill or Tower. Many places in Greece had it in their composition; such as Torone, Torete, Toreate: also in Hetrurïa, Torchonium. Turzon in Africa was a Tower of the Sun. It was sometimes expressed Tar, hence Tarcunia, Taracena, Tarracon in Spain, Tarne (Tar-ain) which gave name to a fountain in Lydia; Taron (Tar-on) in Mauri­tania, Towers of old were either Prutaneia, or light houses, and were styled Tor-Is : whence came the Turris of the Romans. Sometimes these terms were reversed and the Tower was called Astur. Such a one was near some hot streams at no great distance from Cicero's villa. The river so was call­ed Artura. There was also a place of the name opposite to the island Lesbos, undoubtedly denominated from the like circumstances in its situation, as may be learned from Pausanias, who had seen it."

 

But besides this there are other words having an evident affinity to words still found in the Latin authors. This will perhaps best be shewn by copying here an Etruscan Inscrip­tion to be found in the Miscellanea Antiq. Erud. of Spon.

 

LERPIRIOR. SANTIRPIOR. DVIR. FOR. FOVFER. DERTIER. DIERIR. VOTIR. FARER. VEF. NARATV. VEF. PONI. SIRTIR.

 

It is proper to observe that the religion of the ancient na­tions of Italy seems to have been the same and to have differed much from that of the Greeks. In the knowledge of the religion of Italy, the Etruscans possessed an acknow­ledged pre-eminence. It was intimately connected with the civil forms of Law and Government—nay with all the princi­pal acts of private life. The Romans derived their forms from the Etruscans. It is in these forms that we are to look for the almost unchangeable verba solennia thus adopted by the Romans. Now several of these verba solennia, are to be found in the above inscription, and I apprehend that it must have been a Votive tablet.

 

These were very common amongst the ancient Romans as well on public as upon private occasions, the poets often allude to this.

 

Me Tabula sacer

Votiva paries indicat uvido

Suspendisse potenti

Vestimenta Maris Deo.

Horat. Carm. I. 5.

 

Again,

Votiva, pateat, veluti descripta tabella

Vita senis, Horat. Serm. II. 1.

 

And Tibullus,

Pendebatque vagi pastoris votum

Garrula silvestri fistula sacra Deo.

Lib. II. El. 3.

 

Authorities might be multiplied from the Latin poets and historians.

 

The word Voveo was in the ancient Roman Ecclesiastical law a verbum solenne. It will be found in the vow of Ro­mulus of a temple to Jupiter Stator. Livy I.—of Appius, Livy X.—of Camillus, Livy V.—and it as well as the word Votum are found in a multitude of other places, Brissonius expressly says, sed jam ad votorum formulas transeamus, in quibus solemne fuisse verbum voveo non est ignotum,—Brison. de Form. 105.

 

The word Votum is to be found also in conjunction with another word which we see in this inscription, the word DUIR, which is the same as the Latin word Dare, which is eminently a Verbum Solemne being one of the Tria Verba (Do Dico Dedico) referred to in Ovids Fasti.

 

Ille ne fastus erit per quern tria verba silentur.

 

Fastus erit per quem lege licebit agi.—Ovid. Fast. lib. 1.

 

After the defeat of the Consul Flaminus, by Hannibal at Lake Thrasymine the Decemvirs according to Livy, made the public Vow of a Ver sacrum, si bellatum prospere essit, resque publica in eodem quo ante bellum fuisset statu permansisset. In the rogation of the Law to carry this into ef­fect, the following words will be found donum duit—where this word evidently stands for dat.

 

The same word is found in the vow made by Appius, inter prima Signa, with his hands lifted to Heaven, as was the form: Bellona hodie nobis si Victoriam Duis, ast ego templum tibi voveo.

 

A compound of this root is to be found in the fourth table of the 12 tables, (Gothof. 4 fontes &c.) Si pater familias ter filium venum duit liber esto.

 

The word farer is probably the same word as fari which is a verbum solenne. It is also probable that the terminations er and ier are terminations of the infinitive mood in the an­cient Etruscan tongue. Fasti sunt quibus licet fari prœtori tria verba solemnia Do Dico Dedico. ——Macrob. Saturnal I. 16.

 

I am led to suppose that this may be an Etruscan termina­tion of the infinitive—for the following reasons. It is more ancient than the common Latin termination of re. We meet with it in some of the ancient forms as in the word Agier for Agere. Lucretius who was fond of old locutions uses it fre­quently as also does Persius; and Horace more sparingly than either, following the rule which he expresses so well.

 

Obscurata diu populus bonus eruet atque
Proferet in lucem speciosa vocabula rerum
Quae priscis memorata Catonibus atque Cethegis
Nunc situs informis premit et déserta vetustas.

Epist. II. 2.

 

Ponere is a verbum solenne, and there can I think, be no doubt, that the word Poni in the inscription is used in the sense of the Latin word. Its being used, here, serves also further to confirm the conjecture, that the inscription was one of a votive tablet.

 

Non ego victrices lauro redimere Tabellas
Et Veneris media Ponere in aede morer.
Subscribam, Veneri fidas tibi Naso tabellas
Dedicat. Ovid. Amor. I 11.

 

So also Propertius,

 

Magna ego dona, tua figam Cytherea columna

Taleque sub nostro munere carmen erit;

Has pono ante tuam tibi Diva Propertius Ædem

Exuvias tota nocte receptus amans.

El. 11.

 

All the ancient inscriptions upon stones abound with the words Donum Dedit, or Donum Posuit, but more frequent­ly with the initials of these words D. D. or D. P.

 

The word naratu—may be the supine of the word narro. I conjecture that the two first words of this inscription are compound words—Lar or Lars or Larts is an Etruscan word, and signified in that language Dominus. At least so it is said in the Viaggie di Platone nell`Italia dal Signor Cuoco; and tho'he does not cite his authority, yet he could not have been mistaken upon a point like this.

 

The Romans confined this term to their household Gods. But they were in the habit of prefixing the words Dominus and Domina to the namesîof their other Gods and Godesses.

 

Ovid gives them this epithet in the 11th Elegy of the 3d book Amor. Petronius Arbiter (Satyr.) says, Timidissimo murmure votum feci et Domina inquam Venus.

 

So also Virgil,

Junoni cane vota lubens Dominam que potentem
Supplicibus supera donis. Æneid III. 438.

And again speaking of the mother of the Gods.

 

Et vincti currum Dominœ subiere liones.

 

Virgil in the sixth book of the Æneid gives the title to Proserpine. It may then be here a title.

 

Upon the concluding syllable of this first word we shall find all the information we require in Bryant. He says that Aur, sometimes expressed Or, Ur, and Our, signifies both light and fire. "Hence came the Orus of the Egyp­tians, a title given to the Sun. Quod solem vertimus, id in Hebræo est Ur; quod lucem, et ignem, etiam et Solem denotat. It is often compounded with the term above, and rendered Abor, Aborus, Aborras; and it is otherwise diver­sified. This title was often given to Chus by his descen­dants whom they stiled Chusorus. From Aur, taken as an element, came Uro, Ardeo; as a Deity, oro, hora-Zeus was stiled Cham-Ur, by the Greeks; and under this title was worshipped at Halicarnassus. He is so called by Lycophron."

 

Sant in the next word seems to be an epithet. Sanctus is a verbum solemne, and was often applied by the Romans as an epithet to their Gods. The following are examples. Sequimur Sancte Deorum,

 

Quisquis es. —————Virgil Æneid. IV. 576,

Et cantant laudes Termine sancte tuas.

Ovid Fastor II.

 

Examples of this application of the word Sanctus might be multiplied. It is very frequently found so applied in ancient inscriptions.

 

Bryant enables us also to understand the concluding sylla­ble of this word. "To the prefixes pi and phi is generally joined er by which the element of fire is denoted. They called their chief God Pur: and dealt particularly in divination by lots, termed of old Purim. Cicero takes no­tice of this custom of divination at Præneste ; and describes the manner, as well as the place: but gives in to the common mistake, that the Purim related to Jupiter's childhood. He says, that the place, where the process was carried on, was a sacred inclosure, is est hodie locus septus religiose propter Jovis Pueri, qui lactens cum Junone in gremio Fortunœ mammam appetens, castissime colitur a Matribus. This manner of divination was of Chaldaïc original, and brought from Babylonia to Præneste. It is mentioned in Esther, c. 3. v. 7. They cast Pur before Haman, that he might know the success of his purposes against the Jews. Wherefore they call those days Purim after the name of Pur. c. 9. c.26. The same lots of divination being used at  Præneste was the occasion of the God being called Jupiter Pur. This in aftertimes was changed to Puer: whence we find inscriptions, which mention him under that name; and at the same time take notice of the custom which prevailed in his temple. In­scriptions Jovi Puero, and Fortunæ Primigeniæ Jovis Pueri are to be found in Gruter. One is very particular. Fortunæ Primigeniæ Jovis Pueri D. D. Ex SORTE compos factus

Nothus Ruficanæ

L. P. Plottilla.

 

That this word Puer was originally Pur may be proved from a well known passage in Lucretius:

 

Puri sæpa locum propter ac dolia curva

Somno devincti credunt se attollere vestem.

 

Many instances, were it necessary, might be brought to this purpose. It was a name originally given to the priests of the Deity who were named from the Chaldaic, Ur: and by the ancient Latins were called P'uri. At Præneste the name was particularly kept up on account of this divination by lots. These by the Amonians werestyled Purim, being attended with ceremonies by fire; and supposed to be effected through the influence of the Deity.  Præneste seems to be a com­pound of Puren Esta, the lots of Esta, the Deity of fire."

 

The names of all the Etruscan Gods given by Varro, have roots which are still found in the Latin language as Vertumnus Volumnus et Nolumnia et Nurtia &c. This is sufficient­ly accounted for by the number of Etruscan emigrants who settled in Rome soon after its foundation and the great num­ber of other Etruscans, who afterwards removed to Rome.

 

It may be that the discovery made within a few years past of the ancient Egyptian characters and language may be soon followed by the discovery of the language of the Etrus­cans, which would open a rich mine of archaeological lore.

 

It has already been observed that whilst the Etruscans oc­cupied the centre of Italy, kindred tribes speaking the same language, inhabited the Rhetian Alps. And as some years ago there was found in a retired valley of the mountains in the neighborhood of Verona, a colony speaking pure Saxon German, whom scholars like Maffei and Denina, declared to be descendants of the Cimbri who were defeated by Marius, it would seem probable that there might still be found in the Tyrol, Colonies speaking the Etruscan tongue.

 

Latterly there has been a Colony found living in the villa­ge of Groeden, in the Tyrol, who speak a language the roots of which are altogether different from any known tongue, and which has been conjectured to be the Etrascan. It is highly probable that this conjecture is true, and if so then it will be our lot to have lived to see a discovery but little in­ferior in importance, and certainly as little looked for as that of the Hyrogliphics of Egypt.