Etrusca disciplina

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The fortune telling Lasa Vecu (right) with the goddess Menrva . Etruscan bronze mirror from the 3rd century BC Chr.

Etrusca disciplina (Eng. Etruscan discipline, teaching, education) is the Roman name for the religious teachings and practices of the Etruscans . This set of rules was written down by the Etruscans and later translated into Latin by the Romans . The Etruscan records and the Etruscan name of the set of rules have not survived, the Latin translations have only survived in fragments.

designation

When Varro and Pliny the term is Etrusca disciplina , also in Valerius Maximus . From Livius and Arnobius , however, the designation as Disciplina etrusca has been handed down. In Latin, adjectival attributes can be placed both before and after the noun . In modern research, the name Etrusca disciplina is predominantly used.

Above all, Cicero uses other names for the set of rules:

  • Chartae Etruscae
  • Etruscorum scripta
  • Etrusci libri

Cicero speaks of an Etrusca disciplina only indirectly.

content

Marcus Tullius Cicero

According to Cicero, the set of rules consisted of the libri haruspicini , libri fulgurales and libri rituales . The libri haruspicini treated prophecy by examining the intestines of animals ( intestinal inspection ), the libri fulgurales contained rules for the interpretation of lightning ( lightning theory ). The libri rituales, on the other hand, comprised a much larger complex, to which the norms of the cult, the regulations for the consecration of sanctuaries, for the civil and military systems of order, for the foundation of cities and for the subdivision of fields (limitation doctrine) belonged. They also contained the libri fatales with records of the division of time and the limited times of the life of people and peoples ( secular doctrine ), the libri acherontici , named after the underworld river Acheron , with teachings about the afterlife and the funeral rites and finally treatises on the interpretation of the signs and wonders (Ostentaria). In addition to interpreting atmospheric phenomena, observing the flight of birds ( auspicium ) was also part of the interpretation of signs .

  1. libri haruspicini (intestinal inspection)
  2. libri fulgurales (lightning theory)
  3. libri rituales
    • Rites of the founding of a city and field surveying (theory of limitations)
    • Consecration of sanctuaries, fortifications and city gates
    • Classification of civil and military systems of order
    • libri fatales (secular doctrine)
    • libri acherontici (doctrine of the hereafter)
    • ostentaria (theory of signs)

Emergence

According to Censorinus , the kings (Lukumonen) of the early Etruscan period put down the Disciplina in writing. But this probably only applies to a core of the Disciplina, which was expanded over the course of the following centuries. The Etruscans received the first teachings as a revelation from a divine messenger named Tages . These instructions were written down and initially only included the intestinal inspection. Over time, the Etruscans supplemented these teachings. They were finally called libri tagetici or tagetica sacra by the Romans . In addition to the libri haruspicini, they also included the hereafter teachings of the libri acherontici. Originally every Etruscan city should have had its own record of the Etruscan doctrine.

Further teachings were communicated to the Etruscans through the nymph Vegoia (Etruscan Lasa Vecuvia or Lasa Vecu ). Their revelations were probably recorded in the libri fulgurales and part of the libri rituales. These parts of the Disciplina were already known as libri vegoici in ancient times . According to ancient tradition, the records for field measurements were apparently not made until the 1st century BC. Overall, the normative character of the Disciplina points to a predominant development in the final phase of the spiritual and religious development of Etruscan society. It is conceivable that the canonical elaboration of these scriptures was not carried out until the end times by leading priests of a college. In any case, two collections of writings were still known in late antiquity which were named after the bearers of the teachings.

  • libri tagetici: libri haruspicini (entrails) & libri acherontici (doctrine of the hereafter)
  • libri vegoici: libri fulgurales (lightning theory) & parts of the libri rituales (limitation theory, etc.)

Ancient sources

The Etruscan writings of the Etrusca disciplina are all no longer preserved. Even the Latin translations, apart from a fragment, have not survived the times. However, some Roman writers took over from the Latin translations of these books. Since numerous Roman works have also been lost, the sources are poor.

One of the most important ancient sources on the Etruscan teachings and practices is the work De divinatione by Cicero (106–43 BC). In the Naturales quaestiones , Seneca (approx. 1–65 AD) also gives insights into the Etruscan rites. Also Varro (116-27. Chr.) Dealt with the Etruscan teachings. In De lingua Latina he tells of the Etruscan rites when cities were founded. Little is known of his writings, but Censorinus (3rd century AD) makes frequent references to Varro and his work in De die natali . Another ancient source is the Facta et dicta memorabilia by Valerius Maximus (1st century AD). Plutarch (approx. 45–125 AD) describes the rites of the city's foundation in his biography about Romulus .

Pliny (23 / 24–79 AD) went into his Naturalis historia on the interpretation of signs by the Etruscans and gave the writers Caecina, Tarquitius and Caesius as sources. Aulus Caecina (1st century BC) comes from an Etruscan family and was considered an expert in the Etruscan art of divination. He probably wrote a Latin work called De etrusca disciplina . Tarquitius Priscus or Tuscus, also of Etruscan origin, was a translator of parts of the Disciplina from Etruscan into Latin, which were known under the title ostentarium tuscum . The writings of Caecina and Tarquitius have not survived, but Cicero and Varro may have had them.

Festus (2nd century BC) gives a brief overview of the content of the libri rituales in De verborum significatu , an edited version of the dictionary of the same name by Flaccus (1st century BC). Further information and additions to the Etruscan doctrine can be found in the commentaries on Horace of Acron (2nd century AD) and Virgil of Servius (end of 4th century AD), as well as in the Res gestae by Ammianus Marcellinus (330–395 / 400) and by Arnobius (4th century AD). In the case of Servius and Arnobius, the name and content of the libri acherontici are listed in particular. Macrobius (385/390 – after 430) mentions the ostentarium tuscum in his work Saturnalia .

The only surviving text fragment of the Etrusca disciplina comes from the Corpus agrimensorum Romanorum , a work on field measurement from late antiquity. It is an extract from the teachings of the nymph Vegoia ( Lasa Vecu ). Tarquitius seems to have already written a Latin translation of these prophecies. The Vegoia fragment could go back to this translation.

research

Carl Olof Thulin around 1900

Carl Olof Thulin , a Swedish classical philologist and religious scholar , tried to reconstruct the Etrusca disciplina with the help of ancient sources, and between 1906 and 1909 published three volumes to match the three books of the Disciplina: Die Blitzlehre , Die Haruspicin and Die Ritualbücher . The compendium is still authoritative today as a collection of material and a critical interpretation of the literary sources.

Structure of the Etrusca disciplina according to CA Thulin

I. Libri fulgurales

A. The regions of the sky
B. The lightning gods and their manubia
C. Research and interpretation of lightning
D. Atonement for lightning
E. The lightning conjuration

II. Libri haruspicini

A. Etruscan and Roman Extispicin
B. Hostiae animales et consultatoriae
C. Probatio
D. Cousultatio
E. The magical power of the bowels
F. The Greek Extispicin

III. Libri rituales

A. The layout of the city and the division of the country
B. The organization of the state
C. Libri fatales. Acheruntici
D. The teaching of the Ostenta. Ostentaria

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karl Ernst Georges : Comprehensive Latin-German concise dictionary. 8th edition. Hanover 1918, p. 2194: disciplina .
  2. ^ Servius, Vergilii carmina comentarii IV, 166.
  3. ^ Pliny, Naturalis historia 2, 199.
  4. ↑ Valerius Maximus, Facta et dicta memorabilia I, 1.1.
  5. ^ Livy, Ab urbe condita V, 15, 11.
  6. ^ Arnobius, Adversus nationes libri III, 40.1.
  7. ↑ Massimo Pallottino, Larissa Bonfante, Nancy Thomson de Grummond, Jean MacIntosh Turfa, Jean-René Jannot and others. a.
  8. ↑ Cicero, De consulatu suo 47, De divinatione 1, 12, 20.
  9. ↑ Cicero, De haruspicum responso 12, 25.
  10. ↑ Cicero, De haruspicum responso 17, 37.
  11. ↑ Cicero, De divinatione 1, 33, 72.
  12. ↑ Cicero, De divinatione 1, 33, 72.
  13. ^ Massimo Pallottino: Etruscology: History and culture of the Etruscans. P. 328.
  14. ^ Massimo Pallottino: Etruscology: History and culture of the Etruscans. P. 314.
  15. ^ Censorinus, De die natali 4, 13.
  16. ^ Massimo Pallottino: Etruscology: History and culture of the Etruscans. P. 329.
  17. ↑ Cicero, De divinatione 2, 23.
  18. ↑ Ammianus Marcelinus, Res gestae 17, 10, 2.
  19. ↑ Macrobius, Saturnalia 5, 19, 13.
  20. ^ Massimo Pallottino: Etruscology: History and culture of the Etruscans. P. 329.
  21. ↑ Cicero, De divinatione 1, 44, 100.
  22. ^ Massimo Pallottino: Etruscology: History and culture of the Etruscans. P. 329.
  23. ^ Karl Lachmann: The Agrimensores. P. 348.
  24. ^ Karl Lachmann: The Agrimensores. P. 350.
  25. ^ Massimo Pallottino: Etruscology: History and culture of the Etruscans. P. 329.
  26. ↑ Varro, De lingua Latina V, 32.
  27. ^ Pliny, Naturalis historia 1.
  28. ↑ Nancy Thomson de Grummond, Erika Simon (ed.): The Religion of the Etruscans. P. 2.
  29. ↑ Nancy Thomson de Grummond, Erika Simon (ed.): The Religion of the Etruscans. P. 2.
  30. ↑ Nancy Thomson de Grummond, Erika Simon (ed.): The Religion of the Etruscans. P. 2.
  31. ↑ Festus, De verborum significatu 385, 21.
  32. ^ Servius, Vergilii carmina comentarii 8, 398, 20.
  33. ^ Arnobius, Adversus nationes libri II, 62.1.
  34. ↑ Macrobius, Saturnalia 3, 7, 2.
  35. ^ Karl Lachmann: The Agrimensores. P. 350.
  36. ↑ Nancy Thomson de Grummond, Erika Simon (ed.): The Religion of the Etruscans. P. 2 and 30.
  37. ↑ Carl Olof Thulin: The Etruscan Discipline: I - III. Gothenburg 1906–1909. ( online )