DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0608
500 SOVANA. [chap. xxvi.
The first letter in the lower line is doubtful; the former part of it may be
a natural indentation in the rock, and the rest may have been an l. The
inscription is the epitaph of a female, Thestia. Her gentilitial name
Velthurna is equivalent to Volturna, orVoltumna, the great goddess of
tbe Etruscans. Lecna is the Etruscan form of Licinia.
On another tomb, hard by, is—
IOWlOVMfl)3
or " Ecasuthilathi alcilnia," which I would divide thus, " Eca Suthi
Lathial (for Larthial) Cilnia." The latter word is the great Etruscan
gens, so celebrated in the annals of Arretium, and to which Maecenas
belonged; though it is not generally so written in Etruscan, but is
metamorphosed into Cvelne, Cvenle, or Cvenles—
See the Chapter on Siena. The strange star above this inscription
has been conjectured by an antiquary of celebrity to be a numeral.
In the Sopraripa is a tomb with " Sa Rantha," which is probably
but a fragment. Eantha or Ramtha is an Etruscan female name.
Of one inscription I could only trace the letters . . " thba " . . and of
another of two lines, only " lartha" was distinguishable.
In the Poggio Stanziale, near the house-tombs, I read this fragment,
" teias . P . , " On an adjoining monument is the simple word " cal,"
which formed the entire inscription.
In the same line of cliff is this epigraph—" cetc evei . nes." The
letters, however, are by no means distinct. If, as Mr. Ainsley reads it,
there be no stop before the last syllable, we have ceveines, which
betrays a strong affinity to the Cvelnes, or Cvenles, mentioned above, and
strengthens the probability of the great Cilnian gens having been located
at Suana, as well as at Arretium.
The first letter in the lower line is doubtful; the former part of it may be
a natural indentation in the rock, and the rest may have been an l. The
inscription is the epitaph of a female, Thestia. Her gentilitial name
Velthurna is equivalent to Volturna, orVoltumna, the great goddess of
tbe Etruscans. Lecna is the Etruscan form of Licinia.
On another tomb, hard by, is—
IOWlOVMfl)3
or " Ecasuthilathi alcilnia," which I would divide thus, " Eca Suthi
Lathial (for Larthial) Cilnia." The latter word is the great Etruscan
gens, so celebrated in the annals of Arretium, and to which Maecenas
belonged; though it is not generally so written in Etruscan, but is
metamorphosed into Cvelne, Cvenle, or Cvenles—
See the Chapter on Siena. The strange star above this inscription
has been conjectured by an antiquary of celebrity to be a numeral.
In the Sopraripa is a tomb with " Sa Rantha," which is probably
but a fragment. Eantha or Ramtha is an Etruscan female name.
Of one inscription I could only trace the letters . . " thba " . . and of
another of two lines, only " lartha" was distinguishable.
In the Poggio Stanziale, near the house-tombs, I read this fragment,
" teias . P . , " On an adjoining monument is the simple word " cal,"
which formed the entire inscription.
In the same line of cliff is this epigraph—" cetc evei . nes." The
letters, however, are by no means distinct. If, as Mr. Ainsley reads it,
there be no stop before the last syllable, we have ceveines, which
betrays a strong affinity to the Cvelnes, or Cvenles, mentioned above, and
strengthens the probability of the great Cilnian gens having been located
at Suana, as well as at Arretium.