Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

NUMISMATICS

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V09, Page 862 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

NUMISMATICS . locality (see below). See also:

Niebuhr attempted on slender grounds (Rom. Hist., ed. 3 [Eng. trans.], i. p. 41) to distinguish between the Tvppgvoi and the Tusci in See also:order to accept the strongly supported tradition of a Lydian origin for the " Tyrrhenes " (see below), while rejecting it for the " Tuscans," but no one has since attempted to maintain the distinction (Dittenberger, See also:Hermes, 1906, p. 85, footnote, regards the See also:form in -flaw; as a " Graecized form of a See also:local name " See also:equivalent to Tusci), and we now know enough of the See also:morphology of See also:Etruscan names to recognize Tur-s-co- and Tur-s-eno- as closely parallel Etrusco-Latin stems, cf. Venu-c-ius: Venu-senus both from Etr. venu (Schulze, See also:Lat. Eigennamen, p. 405) and See also:Ras-ena: Ras-c-anius (ibid. p. 92); or Voluscus, Volscus: See also:Volusenus (where the formative suffixes in each word are Etrusco-Latin whether the See also:root be the same or not). But the See also:analysis of the names cannot be entirely satisfactory until the first syllable of Etrusci—in See also:Greek writers sometimes "Erpouo'KOC, e.g. in See also:Strabo—ed.

See also:

Meineke—has been explained. 2. The extent of territory over which this See also:language was spoken varied considerably at different epochs, but we have only a few fixed points of See also:chronology. From two See also:separate See also:sources, both traditional and probably See also:sound (See also:Dion. See also:Hal. i. 26, and See also:Plutarch, See also:Sulla, 7; cf. See also:Varro, quoted by Censorinus c. 17. 6), we should ascribe the first See also:appearance of the Etruscans in See also:Italy to the 12th See also:century B.C. The intimate connexion in form between the names See also:Roma, See also:Romulus and the Etruscan gentes rumate, rumulna (Romatia, Romilia, &c.), and the fact that many of the See also:early names in See also:Rome (e.g. Ratumenna, See also:Capena, Tities, Luceres, Ramnes) are characteristically Etruscan, justifies the conclusion that the See also:foundation of the See also:city, in the sense at least of its earliest fortification, was due to Etruscans (Schulze, p. 58o).

The most likely See also:

interpretation of See also:Cato's date for the Etruscan "foundation" of See also:Capua is 598 B.C. (See also:Conway, See also:Italic Dialects, pp. 99 and 83). In 524 B.C. (Dion. Hal. vii. 2) the Etruscans were defeated by See also:Aristodemus of See also:Cumae, and in 474 by See also:Hiero of See also:Syracuse in a See also:great See also:naval See also:battle off Cumae. Between 445 and 425 (It. See also:Dial. 1.c.) they were driven out of Capua by the See also:Samnites, but they lingered in parts of See also:Campania (as far See also:south as Salernum) till at least the next century, as See also:inscriptions show (ib. pp. 94 if., 53), as at See also:Praeneste and See also:Tusculum (ib. p. 310 ff.) till the 3rd century or later.

In See also:

Etruria itself the See also:oldest inscriptions (on the stelae of See also:Faesulae and Volaterrae) can hardly be later than the 6th century B.C. (C. See also:Pauli, Altital. Forsch. ii. See also:part 2, 24 ff.) ; the See also:Romans had become dominant early in the 3rd century (C.I.L. xi. i passim), but the bulk of the Etruscan inscriptions show later forms than those found in the old See also:town of See also:Volsinii destroyed by the Romans in 28o B.C. (C. Pauli, ib. 127). In the See also:north of Italy we find Etruscan written in two alphabets (of See also:Sondrio and Bozen) between 300 and 150 B.C. (id. ib. pp. 63 and 126). The See also:evidence of an Etruscan See also:linen See also:book wrapped See also:round a See also:mummy (see below) seems to suggest that there was some Etruscan See also:colony at See also:Alexandria in the See also:period of the See also:Ptolemies. At least one Etruscan suffix has passed into the See also:Romance See also:languages, -iOcr or -ita in Etr. lautniOa (from lautni " familiaris," or "libertus "), and Etr.-Lat.

Iulilta, which became Ital. -etta, Fr.-Eng. -ette. 3. Finally must be mentioned the remarkable pre-Hellenic See also:

epitaph discovered on the See also:island of See also:Lemnos in 1885 (Pauli, Altital. Forsch. and 2), the language of which offers remark-able resemblances to Etruscan, especially in the phrase .ialxveiz aviz (? = "fifty years old "); cf. Etr. cealxus avils (? " twenty years old ") ; and the pair of endings -ezi, -See also:ale in consecutive words; cf. Etr. larOiale hulxniesi; the See also:style of the sculptural figure has also See also:parallels in the oldest type of Etruscan monuments. The See also:alphabet of this inscription is identical (See also:Kirchhoff, See also:Stud. Griech.

Alphab., 4th ed., p. 54) with that of the older See also:

group of Phrygian inscriptions, which mention See also:King See also:Midas and are therefore older than 62o B.C. With this should be combined the fact that a marked peculiarity of the South-Etruscan alphabet ('j`=f, but earlier = the Greek digamma) has demonstrably arisen out of 4=q) on Phrygian See also:soil, see Class. Rev. xii., 1898, p. 462. Despite the reasonable but not unanswerable difficulty of Kretschmer (Einleitung in d. Geschichte d. griech. Sprache, 1896, p. 240), the See also:weight of the evidence appears to be distinctly in favour of the Etruscan See also:character of the language, and Pauli's view is now generally accepted by students of Etruscan; hence the inclusion of the inscription in the Corpus Inscc. Etruscarum. 4. The first See also:attempt to interpret Etruscan inscriptions was made by Phil.

Buonarroti (Explic. et conject. ad monum. &c., See also:

Florence, 1726), who, as was almost inevitable at that See also:epoch, tried to explain the language as a See also:dialect of Latin. But no real study was possible before the determination of the alphabet by See also:Lepsius (Inscc. Umbr. et Oscae, See also:Leipzig, 1841), and his See also:discovery that five of the Tables of See also:Iguvium (q.v.), though written in Etruscan alphabet, contained a language akin to Latin but totally different from Etruscan, though some of the non-Italic peculiarities of Etruscan had been already pointed out by Ottfried See also:Muller (See also:Die Etrusker, See also:Breslau, 1828). The earliest inscriptions, e.g. the terra-See also:cotta See also:stele of Capua of the 5th century B.C., are written in "See also:serpentine boustrophedon," but in its See also:common form of the 3rd century B.C. the alphabet is See also:retrograde, and has the following nineteen letters: )#Qre ,See also:IKi imgetvt8 a; • c, e, v, z, h, 1, m, n. p, s', r, s, t, u, x, f On older monuments )f ='k occurs as an archaic form of c ; 9 =q; pd, a sibilant of some See also:kind; and C = , this last mostly in See also:foreign words. In the earlier monuments the See also:cross-bars of e and v and h have a more decidedly oblique inclination, and s is often angular (2). The mediae b, g, d, though they often occur in words handed down by writers as Etruscan, are never found in the Etruscan inscriptions, though the presence of the mediae in the Umbrian and Oscan alphabets and in the abecedaria shows that they existed in the earliest form of the Etruscan alphabet, 0 is very rare. The form t (earlier Nt)=/ in south Etruscan and Faliscan inscriptions should also be mentioned. Its See also:combination with H h shows. that it had once served to denote the sound of digamma just as Latin F. The varieties of the alphabet in use between the See also:Apennines and the See also:Alps were first examined by See also:Mommsen (Inschriften See also:nord-etruskischen Alphabets, 1853), and have since been discussed by Pauli (Altitalische Forschungen, 1885–1894, esp. vol. iii., Die Veneter, p. 218, where other references will be found, see also See also:VENETI). s.

The determination of the alphabet was followed by a large number of different attempts to explain the Etruscan forms from words in some other language to which it was supposed that Etruscan might be akin; Scandinavian and Basque and Semitic have been tried among the See also:

rest. These attempts, how-ever ingenious, have all proved fruitless; even the latest and least fanciful (Remarques sur le parente de la langue etrusque, See also:Copenhagen, 1899; Bulletin de l'Academie Royale See also:des Sciences et des Lettres de Danemark, 1899, p. 373), in which features of some living dialects of the See also:Caucasus are cautiously compared by Prof. V. See also:Thomsen (as independently by Pauli, see § 12), is at the best premature, and as tc the numerals probably misleading. Worst of all was the effort of W. See also:Corssen (Die Sprache der Etrusker, 1875), in whom learning and See also:enthusiasm were combined with loose methods of both See also:epigraphy and See also:grammar, to revive the view of Buonarroti. The only solid achievement in the period of Corssen's See also:influence (1860–1880) was the description of the See also:works of See also:art (tombs, vases, mirrors and the like) from the different centres of Etruscan See also:population; See also:Dennis's Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria (1st ed., 1848; 2nd, 1878) contributes something even to the study of the language, because many of the figures in the scenes sculptured or engraved See also:bear names in Etruscan form (e.g. usils, " See also:sun "; or " of the sun," on the templum of Placentia; (ujlun.t, " Bacchus "; tuxulxa, a demon or fury; see Dennis, Cities, 2nd ed., See also:frontispiece, and p. 354)• 6. The reaction against Corssen's method was led first by W. Deecke, Corssen and die Sprache der Etrusker (1876), Etruskische Forschungen (1875–1880), and continued by Carl Pauli at first jointly with Deecke and afterwards singly with greater See also:power (Etruskische Studien, 1873), Etr. Forschungen u.

Studien (See also:

Gottingen-See also:Stuttgart, 1881-1884), Altitalische Studien (See also:Hanover, 1883–1887); Altitalische Forschungen (Leipzig, 1885–1894). Of the See also:work achieved during the last See also:generation by him and the few but distinguished scholars associated with him (Danielsson, Schaefer, Skutsch and Torp) it may perhaps be said that, though the See also:positive knowledge yet reaped is scanty, so much has been done in other ways that the prospect is full of promise. In the first See also:place, the only sound method of dealing with an unknown language, that of interpreting the records of the language by their own See also:internal evidence in the first instance (not by the use of imaginary parallels in better known languages whose kinship with the problematic language is merely assumed), has been finally established and is now followed even by scholars like Elia Lattes, who still retain some See also:affection for the older point of view. By this means enough certainty has been obtained on many characteristic features of the language to bring about a See also:general recognition of the fact that Etruscan, if we put aside its borrowings from the neighbouring dialects of Italy, is in no sense an Indo-See also:European language. In the second place, the great undertaking of the Corpus Inscriptionum Etruscarum, founded by Carl Pauli, with the support of the See also:Berlin See also:Academy, conducted by him from 1893 till his See also:death in See also:tool, and continued by Danielsson, Herbig and Torp, for the first See also:time provided a sound basis for the study in a See also:text of the inscriptions, edited with care and arranged according to their provenance. The first See also:volume contains over four thousand inscriptions from the See also:northern See also:half of Etruria. Thirdly, the discoveries of See also:recent years have richly increased the available material, especially by two documents each of some length. (1) The 5th-century stele of terra-cotta from S. Maria di Capua already cited, published by Buecheler in Rhein. Museum, lv., 1900, p. 1) and now in the Royal Museum at Berlin, is the longest Etruscan inscription yet found. Its best preserved part contains some two See also:hundred words of continuous text, and is divided into paragraphs, of which the third may be cited in the See also:reading approved by Daniels-son and Torp, and with the See also:division of words adopted by Torp (in his Bemerkungen zur etrusk.

Inschr. von S. Maria di Capua, See also:

Christiania, 1905), to which the student may be referred. " isvei tule ilucve, an prig laruns ilucuOux, See also:nun: tiOuaial xues xaOc(e) anulis mulu rizile, ziz riin puiian acasri, ti-m an tule, leOam sul; ilucu-per prig an ti, ar vus; to aius, nunfleri." (2) The linen wrappings of an See also:Egyptian mummy (of the Ptolemaic period) preserved in the See also:Agram museum were observed to show on their inner See also:surface some See also:writing, which proved to be Etruscan and to contain more than a thousand words of largely continuous text (Krall, " Die etruskischen Mumienbinden des Agramer. Museums," Denkschr. d. k. Akad. d. Wissenschaften, 41, See also:Vienna, 1892). The writing has probably nothing to do with the mummy as it is on the inner surface of the bands, and these are torn fragments of the See also:original book. The alphabet is of about the 3rd century B.C. 7. From the recurrence of a number of particular formulae with frequent numerals at intervals, the book seems to be a liturgical document. Torp has pointed out that the two documents have some See also:forty words in common, and, with Lattes (" Primi Apprenti sulla grande iscriz. Etrusca," &c., in Rendic. d.

Reale Inst. Lomb., serie ii. vol. xxxviii., 1900, p. 345 ff.), has shown that both contain lists of offerings made to certain gods (among them Suri, LeOam, and Calu) ; and Skutsch (Rhein. See also:

Mus. 56, 1901, p. 639) has added a plausible conjecture as to the occasions of the offerings, based on the phrase "flerxva neOunsl " " Neptuni statua" (or " statuae pars") ; Torp has made it very probable that the words vac) (or vacil) and nun, which recur at See also:regular intervals in both, mean " address," " recite," " pray," or the like, preceding or following spoken parts of the See also:ritual. 8. Along with the growth of the material, some positive increase in knowledge of the language has been attained. Independently of the work done upon particular inscriptions, such as that whic h has just been described, a considerable addition has come from the elaborate study of Latin proper names already mentioned by Prof. W. Schulze of Berlin (Zur Geschichte lateinischer Eigennamen, Berlin, 1904), which has incidentally embodied and somewhat extended the points of Etruscan nomenclature previously observed. The See also:chief results for our purpose may be briefly stated.

It will be convenient to use the following terms: (1) praenomen=See also:

personal name of the individual. e.g. Vel or See also:Lar of a See also:man, Lar*i or Oana of a woman. (2) nomen=See also:family name. See also:father. e.g. Hanusa (in Latin spelling Hannossa) or Pultusa (also Pultus) of a man; Hanunia of a woman. All these are commonly in the " nominative " (as the examples just quoted from Schulze, pp. 316-327) in sepulchral inscriptions. Besides these, we have certain other descriptions used in forms which may be called a " genitive-See also:dative " See also:case, or a " derivative possessive " See also:Adjective. These may be entitled: (5) paternum (a) =praenomen of father, used generally after the nomen of son or daughter. e.g. arnOal " of See also:Arne." more commonly simply ar, so is for Laris-al, to which See also:clan " son," often abbreviated c, and See also:sex or sec (abbrev. s) daughter," are sometimes added.

paternum (b) =nomen of father, used only after the praenomen of a daughter (e.g. Oana velOurnas, " See also:

Thana daughter of Velthurna "), to which sex " daughter," often abbreviated s, is sometimes added. (6) maternum (a) = nomen of See also:mother. e.g. pumpunial, " of Pumpuni " (in Lat. form Pomponia) ; alfnal " of Alfnei (Lat. Alfia) ; hetarias, " of Hetaria." maternum (b)= cognomen of mother. e.g. vetnal, " of Vetui," or " of Vetonia," hesual, " of Hesui." maternum (c) =agnomen of mother. e.g cumeruniai, " of Cumerunia," i.e. " of a daughter of the cumeru-family." (7) maritale—(i.) nomen, or (ii.) cognomen, or (iii.) agnomen of See also:husband, used directly after the nomen of the wife, the word puia, " wife," being often added. e.g. (i.) larOi cencui larcnasa, " Larthia Cenconia, wife of a Largena "; (ii.) larOia pulfnei spaspusa, " Larthia Pulfennia, wife of a Spaspo "; this form being the same as that used for the agnomen of a man (see above)—(iii.) hastia cainei leusla, " Hastia Caia, wife of a son of a See also:Leo "; and with a longer and possibly not synonymous form of suffix. Oania titi latinial.fec hanuslisa, ThaniaTitia, daughter of Latinia, wife of a Hanusa "—these secondary derivatives in -sla, &c., being an example of what is called genetivus genetivi, a characteristic Etruscan formation, not confined to this feminine use. These examples will probably enable the reader to interpret the eat See also:mass of the names on Etruscan tombs.

It should be added F) that no clear distinction can be See also:

drawn between the use of the cognomina and the nomina, though it is probable that in origin the cognomen came from some family connected. with the gene by See also:marriage; and (2). that the praenomen generally comes first, but sometimes second (especially when both nomen and praenomen are added in the genitive to the name of a son or daughter). 9. The examples given illustrate also the few principles of in-flexion and word-formation that are reasonably certain, for example, the various " genitival " endings. Those in -s and -1 are also found in dedications where in Latin a dative would be used: e.g. (mi) Oupl8af alpan turce " (hoc) deae Thupelthae donum dedit," where turce shows the only verbal inflection yet certainly known; cf. amce, " was," arce, " made," ziiacnuce, " held the See also:office of a Zilax," lupuce, " passed away." More important are the formative principles which the proper names display. Endings -a, -u, -e and -na are common in the " Nominative "—and in Etruscan there appears to be no distinction between this case and the See also:Accusative— of men's names; the endings -i, -See also:nei, -nia and -unia are among the commonest for See also:women's names. But no trace of gender has yet been observed in common nouns or adjectives. Nor is it always easy to distinguish a " Case " from a noun-See also:stem. The women's names corresponding to the men's names in -u are sometimes -ui, some-times -nei, sometimes longer forms (ves-acnei, beside ves-u, hanunia from hanu). And the so-called Genitives can themselves be inflected, as we have seen. The form neOunsl " of See also:Neptune," may even have swallowed up the nominatival -s of the Italic Neptunus. to.

In view of the protracted discussion as to the numerals and the See also:

dice on which the first six are written, it should be added that only the following points are certain: (i) that max=one; (2) that the next five See also:numbers are somehow represented by ci, Bu, huD, sa and zal; (3) and the next three somehow by cezp-, sem4-and muv; (4) that the suffix -alx- denotes the tens, or some of them, e.g. cealxbeside ci (? 50 and 5) ; (5) that the suffix -z or -s is multiplicative (es(a)ls from zal). It is almost certain that zal must mean either 2 or 6, and of these a stronger case can, perhaps, be made for the latter meaning. Zathrum appears to be the corresponding ten (? 6o). Skutsch's See also:article in Indogerm. Forschungen, v. p. 256, remains the best See also:account. In See also:close connexion with the numerals on sepulchral inscriptions appear the words ril, " old, aged," avils, " annorum, or " aetatis," and tivr, " See also:month " (from tiv, `See also:moon "). n. Schulze has shown (e.g., p. 410) that a large number of See also:familiar endings (e.g. those which when Latinized become -acius; -alius, -annius, -See also:arius, -asius, -alius, -avus, -avius, -ax, and a similar See also:series with -o-, -ocius, &c.), and further those with the elements, -lno-,-lino-, -enna, -eno-, -See also:tern-, -turn-, -tric-, &c., exhibit different methods by which nomina were built up from praenomina in Etruscan.

Finally it is of considerable See also:

historical importance to observe that a great mass of the praenomina used for this purpose are clearly of Italic origin, e.g. Helva, Barba, Vespa, See also:Nero, Pedo, from all of which (and many more) there are derivatives which at one See also:stage or other were certainly or probably Etruscan. It is this See also:incorporation of Italic elements into the Etruscan nomenclature—itself a familiar and inevitable feature of the pirate-type of See also:conquest and See also:settlement, under which many women who bear and See also:nurse and first name the See also:children belong to the conquered See also:race—that has entrapped so many scholars into the delusion that the language itself was Indo-European. 12. So far the language has been discussed without any reference to See also:ethnology, But the facts stated above in regard to the See also:extension of the language in space and time are clearly adverse to the See also:hypothesis that it came into Italy from the north, and fully bear out See also:Livy's account (v. 33. 11) that the Etruscans of the Alpine valleys had been driven into that See also:isolation by the invasion of the Gauls (beginning about 400 B.C.). And the accumulating evidence of a connexion with See also:Asia See also:Minor (see e.g. above §3) justifies confidence in the unbroken testimony of every See also:Roman writer, which cannot but represent the traditions of the Etruscans themselves, and the evidence of similar traditions from the See also:Asiatic See also:side given by See also:Herodotus (i.97) to the effect that they came to Italy by See also:sea from See also:Lydia. Against this there has never been anything to set but the silence of " the Lydian historian See also:Xanthus " (Dion. Hal. i. 28; cf. 3o) who may have had many excellent reasons for it other than a disbelief of the tradition, and of whom in any case we know nothing See also:save the vague See also:commendation of See also:Dionysius.

And it is not merely the miscellanies of See also:

Athenaeus (e.g. xii. 519) but the unimpeachable testimony of the Umbrian See also:Plautus (Cistellaria, 2. 3. 19), singularly neglected since Dennis's See also:day, that convicts the Etruscans of an institution practised by the Lydians and other non-Indo-European peoples of Asia Minor, but totally repugnant to all the peoples among whom the Etruscans moved in their western settlement. The reader may be referred to Dennis's See also:introductory See also:chapter for a very serviceable collection of the other See also:ancient testimony as to their origin.. In the See also:present See also:state of our knowledge of the language it is best to disregard its apparent or alleged resemblances to various features of various Caucasian dialects pointed out by Thomsen (see above) and Pauli (Altit. Forsch. ii. 2, p. 147 ff.), and to acquiesce in Kretschmer's (op. cit. p. 408) non liquet as to the particular See also:people of Asia Minor from whom the Etruscans sprang. But meanwhile it is clear that such evidence as has been obtained by epigraphic and linguistic See also:research is not in any sense hostile but distinctly favourable to the tradition of their origin which they themselves must have maintained.

End of Article: NUMISMATICS

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
NUMIDIA 		[next]
NUMISMATICS (Lat. numisma, nomisma, a coin; from th...

Site © 2006 - Net Industries