DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.847#0502
472
is marked amongst them by varied terminations. The
there names which were common to Romans, and the
Roman distinction between the name of a gens and
that of a family, were unknown in Etruria, for among
the few Etruscan names which are familiar to us in
Roman history, and the many which occur in fune-
real inscriptions, there appear only those which, in
modern times, are called christian and sirname,
and never the more general designation which in
Rome bound together many individual families as
members of a common gens.
We find indeed three names, or two family names,
in use among those Etruscans who were settled in
Rome, and conformed to Roman manners, as in the
instance of Coelius Vibenna, Vestricius Spurinna,
and Cilnius Maecenas; but here there was no adop-
tion of a gentilitial classification, there was merely
the assumption of another family name in addition
to that which they had before. These patronymics
were preserved unaltered for ages, and were only
in so far modified by each generation as they were
influenced by marriage or maternal descent. Etru-
ria was a strictly aristocratic country, and one in
which pride of birth was encouraged by every
national institution. We may conceive how great
it must have been in free and dominant Etruria,
from the traces which we have of it in some of the
works of Latin authors during the ages of its depres-
sion and progressive downfall. Although Horace
declares that Maecenas set little value on his nobi-
lity, yet his frequent allusions to it show that the
is marked amongst them by varied terminations. The
there names which were common to Romans, and the
Roman distinction between the name of a gens and
that of a family, were unknown in Etruria, for among
the few Etruscan names which are familiar to us in
Roman history, and the many which occur in fune-
real inscriptions, there appear only those which, in
modern times, are called christian and sirname,
and never the more general designation which in
Rome bound together many individual families as
members of a common gens.
We find indeed three names, or two family names,
in use among those Etruscans who were settled in
Rome, and conformed to Roman manners, as in the
instance of Coelius Vibenna, Vestricius Spurinna,
and Cilnius Maecenas; but here there was no adop-
tion of a gentilitial classification, there was merely
the assumption of another family name in addition
to that which they had before. These patronymics
were preserved unaltered for ages, and were only
in so far modified by each generation as they were
influenced by marriage or maternal descent. Etru-
ria was a strictly aristocratic country, and one in
which pride of birth was encouraged by every
national institution. We may conceive how great
it must have been in free and dominant Etruria,
from the traces which we have of it in some of the
works of Latin authors during the ages of its depres-
sion and progressive downfall. Although Horace
declares that Maecenas set little value on his nobi-
lity, yet his frequent allusions to it show that the