(All rights reserved 
’ ETRURIA CAPTA. 
BY JOHN CAMPBELL, M.A. 
Professor in the Presbyterian College, Montreal, d&c., dc. 
Read January 76th, 1886. 
I have the honour to report to the Institute, as one of the most 
important results of my studies in Hittite paleeography, the solution 
of the Etruscan problem. It is unnecessary to occupy time with an 
account of the many inscriptions in the Etruscan character, and of 
the attempts that have been made to decipher them, as such infor- 
mation can be obtained from sources open to every reader. Let it 
suffice to say that thousands of inscriptions have been discovered, 
and that, up to the present time, no satisfactory translation has been 
made, even of the briefest.’ 
The original materials with which I intend principally to deal are 
the epitaphs contained in Lanzi’s Saggio di Lingua Etrusca and the 
Eugubine Tables, so faithfully reproduced in the Atlas accompanying 
Professor Bréal’s ingenious but most unsatisfying translation. Of 
the Tables, seven only, and a small portion of an eighth, are in the 
Etruscan character. The rest are written in the Roman alphabet, 
and are Umbrian. These Umbrian tables are being translated, and 
will shortly be presented to the world as the oldest Celtic document 
extant. The proof of my discovery is chiefly to be found in the 
rendering of the Etrusco-Eugubine inscription, which is authenticated 
by its internal historical unity, the perfect accordance of its gram- 
matical construction and vocabulary with those of a well-known 
living language, and the harmony between it and the independent 
Umbrian record. The evidence afforded by the numerous sepulchral 
inscriptions is necessarily less convincing, as they are brief, consist 
largely of proper names, present few constructions, and are popular, 
not classical. But, inasmuch as they are more accessible and more 
1 Dr. W. Deecke, the leading Etruscologist of the day, claims only 34 words made out “‘ with 
tolerable certainty,” exclusive of proper names. Encycl. Brit. Art. Etruria. 
