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https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0039
introduction.] OMENTAL CHARACTER OF THE ETRUSCANS, xxxix
No fact can be more clearly established than the oriental
character of the civil and religious polity, the social and domestic
manners, and many of the arts of the Etruscans; and traces of
this affinity are abundant in their monuments.
Like the Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, and Hindoos,
the Etruscans were subject to an all-dominant hierarchy, which
assumed to be a theocracy, and maintained its sway by its
arrogant, exclusive claims of intimate acquaintance with the
will of Heaven and the decrees of fate. But here this ecclesias-
tical authority was further strengthened by the civil govern-
ment, for the priests and augurs of Etruria were also her princes
and military chiefs; so that with this triple sceptre of civil,
religious, and military power, they ruled the people "as the
soul governs the body." This state of things was purely
oriental. It never existed among the Greeks or other European
races; unless it find some analogy in the Druidical system.
The divination and augury for which the Etruscans were
renowned, and which gave them so peculiar a character among
the nations of the west, were of oriental origin. Besides the
abundant proofs given in Holy Writ of the early prevalence of
soothsaying in the East, we have the authority of Homer and
other pagan writers; and the origin of augury is particularly
referred to Caria, an adjoining and cognate country to Lydia.6
Cicero, indeed, classes the Etruscans with the Chaldees for their
powers of divination, though they affected to read the will of
heaven, not in the stars, or in dreams, so much as in the entrails
of victims, the flight of birds, and the effects of lightning.7
6 Plin. VII. 57. Telmessus in Caria Divination by lightning was the branch in
was particularly famed for its aruspices which the Etruscans were especially dis-
and soothsayers. Herod. I. 78, 84; tinguished, and in which they excelled all
Cicero, de Divin. I. 41, 42. Clemens otherpeople. Diod. Sic.V.p.316; Seneca,
of Alexandria (Strom. I. p. 306, ed. Nat. Qusest. II. 32 ; Dion. Hal. IX. p.
Sylb.) says the Cardans were the first 563 ; Claud, in Eutrop. I. 12 ; A. Gell.
who divined from the stars, the Phry- IV. 5; Lucan. I. 587. Even Cicero un-
gians from the flight of birds, the Etrus- doubtingly maintains their skill in sooth-
cans by aruspicy. saying. De Divin. I. 18,41,42. Joannes
7 Cicero, loc. cit. The same power Lydus in his work De Ostentis, c. 27,
was also possessed by other oriental gives, on the authority of Nigidins Figu-
people—the Phrygians, Ciliciaus, Pisi- lus, a " Diarium Tonitruale," or Etrus-
dians, and Arabs. Cic. de Leg. II. 13. can "thunder-calendar," for every day
No fact can be more clearly established than the oriental
character of the civil and religious polity, the social and domestic
manners, and many of the arts of the Etruscans; and traces of
this affinity are abundant in their monuments.
Like the Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, and Hindoos,
the Etruscans were subject to an all-dominant hierarchy, which
assumed to be a theocracy, and maintained its sway by its
arrogant, exclusive claims of intimate acquaintance with the
will of Heaven and the decrees of fate. But here this ecclesias-
tical authority was further strengthened by the civil govern-
ment, for the priests and augurs of Etruria were also her princes
and military chiefs; so that with this triple sceptre of civil,
religious, and military power, they ruled the people "as the
soul governs the body." This state of things was purely
oriental. It never existed among the Greeks or other European
races; unless it find some analogy in the Druidical system.
The divination and augury for which the Etruscans were
renowned, and which gave them so peculiar a character among
the nations of the west, were of oriental origin. Besides the
abundant proofs given in Holy Writ of the early prevalence of
soothsaying in the East, we have the authority of Homer and
other pagan writers; and the origin of augury is particularly
referred to Caria, an adjoining and cognate country to Lydia.6
Cicero, indeed, classes the Etruscans with the Chaldees for their
powers of divination, though they affected to read the will of
heaven, not in the stars, or in dreams, so much as in the entrails
of victims, the flight of birds, and the effects of lightning.7
6 Plin. VII. 57. Telmessus in Caria Divination by lightning was the branch in
was particularly famed for its aruspices which the Etruscans were especially dis-
and soothsayers. Herod. I. 78, 84; tinguished, and in which they excelled all
Cicero, de Divin. I. 41, 42. Clemens otherpeople. Diod. Sic.V.p.316; Seneca,
of Alexandria (Strom. I. p. 306, ed. Nat. Qusest. II. 32 ; Dion. Hal. IX. p.
Sylb.) says the Cardans were the first 563 ; Claud, in Eutrop. I. 12 ; A. Gell.
who divined from the stars, the Phry- IV. 5; Lucan. I. 587. Even Cicero un-
gians from the flight of birds, the Etrus- doubtingly maintains their skill in sooth-
cans by aruspicy. saying. De Divin. I. 18,41,42. Joannes
7 Cicero, loc. cit. The same power Lydus in his work De Ostentis, c. 27,
was also possessed by other oriental gives, on the authority of Nigidins Figu-
people—the Phrygians, Ciliciaus, Pisi- lus, a " Diarium Tonitruale," or Etrus-
dians, and Arabs. Cic. de Leg. II. 13. can "thunder-calendar," for every day