1854.] 



POINTS CONNECTED WITH THE EARLY HISTORY OF ROME. 



277 



In accordance with the historical facts of the successive occu- 

 pations of the Etrurian territory, we find two main ingredients 

 of the Etruscan language derived on the one hand from the 

 original inhabitants and their Pelasgian conquerors, on the other 

 from the Gothic tribe of Rasena, who conquered the Pelasgians 

 in their turn. The Etruscan language, then, is partly a Pelasgian 

 idiom, more or less corrupted and deformed by contact with the 

 Umbrians, and in part a relic of the oldest Low-German or 

 Scandinavian dialects. ( Varronianus, chap. V.) 



We may select for inspection a specimen belonging to each 

 of these classes, as given by Donaldson. It is remarkable that 

 the following inscription was discovered at Cervetri, the ancient 

 Caere, the old stronghold of the Agyllseans, a race of marked 

 Pelasgic character ; and we should therefore expect a different 

 style from that which marks the remains of Northern and Eastern 

 Etruria, where the Umbro-Etruscan and Rasenic languages would 

 prevail. Accordingly, in the following lines we immediately 

 recognize not only Gieek forms, but also the heroic metre which 

 arose in Greece, and was afterwards fully naturalized in Italy Jby 

 the poetic genius of Lucretius and Virgil, while there is, at the 

 same time, a slight admixture of the Tuscan vocabulary. 



" Mi ni kethuma, mi melhu maram lisiai thipurenai ; 

 Ethe erai sie epana, mi nethu nastav helephu." 



The meaning of this couplet is thus given by Donaldson: "I 

 am not dust; I am ruddy wine on burnt ashes: When there is 

 bunvng heat under ground, I am water for thirsty lips:" — a 

 poetical description of the various uses of a drinking vase. 



In the words mi kethuma, metftu, maram, erai, we recognize 

 the Greek el/xi, xBap.aKos, and x Sa i JLa ^ Latin humus; p-eQv, y-a-poiv 

 (the grandson of Bacchus) : compare 'lofiapos, and paipw ■ and 

 ifi, the ancient root of a word meaning the earth. Lisiai 

 and thipurenai seem to be connected, the former with lix, 

 " ashes mixed with water," the latter with the root of tepidus, 

 &c. Epana, nastav, and helephu are of doubtful etymology. 

 Nethu seems very probably to be a Tuscan word for water. We 

 find Neptune written Neihuns. The explanation of the words 

 nastav and helephu is conjectural. 



We pesson now to the other branch of Etruscan inscriptions; 

 those which present the Rasenic type of the language, and claim 

 affinity with the Scandinavian, okl Norse, and Runic languages ; 

 suggesting a link between the famous king whose prowess spread 

 terror to the gates of Rome, and the no less dreaded warriors 

 who scoured the Baltic and German Seas, and startled with 

 their piratical cry the sleeping peasant on the coast of Kent. 



The Runic affinities of the Rasenic language are most fully 

 exemplified by the great Perugian Inscription, which is critically 

 examined by Donaldson. ( Varronianus, V., § 10.) My space 

 forbids me to do more than to refer to the elaborate researches 

 of Donaldson on this point. One or two examples may 

 be given of the resemblance between the ancient Etruscan and 

 the northern dialects. Thus the word clan or den, which occurs 

 frequently in Etruscan in the signification of child, is illus- 

 trated by the Icelandic Men or hlien, a synonyme of the German 

 Tclein, but primarily in the instance of a child as opposed to a 

 man. Icelandic explanations, too, are given of the words phle- 

 res, signifying a votive-offering; <^{=to build or to cause to be 

 made — in Icelandic, kasa. These words appear in the following 

 inscription upon a bronze figure representing Apollo crowned 

 with laurel; where we meet with a singular union of Pelasgian 

 and Scandinavian forms : 



Mi phleres epul aphe aritimi 

 Phasti ruphura turce elen ceca. 



which is translated, " I am a votive-offering to Apollo and Ar- 

 temis: Fastia Rufria, the daughter of 'fuse us, had me made." 



Thus philological as well as ethnological considerations confirm 

 the conclusions at which we arrived above ; which may here be 

 very briefly recapitulated. The Etruscans, in the largest sense 

 of that term, may, without contradiction, claim both Pelasgian 

 and Rhanian affinities. The former may be represented by the 

 Herodotean story of a Lydian colonization ; the latter is confirmed 

 by the express testimony of Livy and other ethnological authors.* 



IV. The Old Roman Language. 



The last division of our inquiry refers to the oldest remaining 

 form of the Roman language, represented in its pure character 

 as a rude compound of the Umbrian, Oscan, and Etruscan. 

 Greek civilization had so changed the tone of the people and their 

 language, that Polybius, speaking of the old treaty between 

 Rome and Carthage (III., 22) tells us that in his time even the 

 educated Romans could with difficulty interpret the existing 

 memorials of the oldest form of their own language. Many in- 

 teresting specimens of this ancient tongue have been preserved. 

 Thus we are familiar with the existing remains of the XII Ta- 

 bles; with the Arvalian Litany; the Inscription on the Columna 

 Rostrata; the Senatus Consultum de Bacchanalibus; and above 

 all, with the Epitaphs of the Scipios. Besides these, we have 

 the old Roman Law on the Bantine Table; certain fragments of 

 laws, preserved by Ftstus; and copies from the Tiburtine In- 

 scription, itself now unfortunately lost. The most interesting 

 specimen which my space allows me to quote is the Epitaph on 

 the flanien dialis P. Scipio, son of the elder African us, and adop- 

 tive father of the younger, whose praises are fully borne out by 

 the soberer statement of Cicero. In the following arrangement 

 we preserve the old Saturnian rythm, the peculiar metre of early 

 Roman poetry: 



Quei apice' insigne dialis | flaminis gesistei, 

 Mors perfecit tua nt essent | omnia brevia, 

 Honos fama virtusque | gloria atque ingenium. 

 Quibns sei in longa licuisset | tibi utier viia, 

 Facile facteis superassfes |-gloriam majorum. 

 Qua re lubens te gremiu, | Scipio recipit terra, 

 Publi, prognatum | Publio, Corneli.t 



* One objection must be bere noticed — which was made by Professor 

 Wilson on the occasion of this Paper being read at the Canadian Institute, viz., 

 that the writing of the Etruscans points to a Semitic origin ; in Etruscan 

 as well as in Phoenician and other Semitic writing, the course of the lines 

 being from right to left. This argument is valid with reference to Etru- 

 ria exactly so far as it is valid for Greece. It is well known that ancient 

 Greek was at first written from right to left ; then indifferently either way ; 

 then alternately (a method which was termed " Boustrophedon," from its 

 resemblance to the course of oxen in ploughing, first in one direction, then 

 in the other) ; and lastly from left to right. Supposing its importation into 

 Eu-uria at a period when it was written in the earliest manner, it will not 

 appear strange that the colonists shonld have clung to the old fashion long 

 alter it had been altered in the mother country. A curious specimen of an 

 inscription in Boustrophedon is given by Leake. (" Asia Minor," p. 239, 

 240, note.) 



f The following is a literal, and, I fear, bald translation ; but it may 

 serve to give the reader an idea of the metre and meaning of the original : 



The sacred prie'stly symbol | decked thy noble forehead ; 

 Yet Death lays low thy honor | fame and virtuous actions, 

 Burying short-lived glory aucl | sUbtle mind together. 

 Had it been thine to finish | a good old age and active, 

 Lightly thou hiidst outstripped [ thy old ancestral glories. 



