DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.847#0503
473
Roman knight was not a little proud of his descent
from ancient kings. Cicero lays some stress upon
Aulus Ccecina of Arezzo being among the noblest
in all Etruria. And Persius the poet, a native of
Volterra, advises a modest student, like himself, of
Etruscan lineage, and no Roman grandee or patri-
cian, but of respectable middling station, not to be
proud of his venerable family tree, or of his descent
from illustrious ancestors in the thousandth gene-
ration: " Stemmate Tusco ramum millesimus ducit."
Thus we see that the vanquished and subject Etrus-
cans, though in Rome neither patrician nor noble,
were as proud of their illustrious pedigree as their
masters were of a long line of consular images.
It is remarkable that, in Etruscan sepulchral in-
scriptions, the name of the mother occurs at least
as frequently as that of the father, and always in
conjunction with the patronymic. Thus in the
same grave we recognise two sarcophagi as those of
a mother and a son, from the inscriptions on the
first—Larthia Fuisinei Lecnesa, or Larthia, daughter
of the house of Fuisine, and wedded to a Lecne or
Licinins : and Arnth Lecne Fuisinal, or Aruns Lecne
or Licinius, son of a daughter of the family of
Fuisine. From this equal importance which seems
to have been attached to maternal nobility as to
paternal, we may conceive that women held a much
higher place in Etruscan society than in that of
Greece or Rome; and this is confirmed by the
prominent part which they are always represented
as taking in banquets and social intercourse.
Roman knight was not a little proud of his descent
from ancient kings. Cicero lays some stress upon
Aulus Ccecina of Arezzo being among the noblest
in all Etruria. And Persius the poet, a native of
Volterra, advises a modest student, like himself, of
Etruscan lineage, and no Roman grandee or patri-
cian, but of respectable middling station, not to be
proud of his venerable family tree, or of his descent
from illustrious ancestors in the thousandth gene-
ration: " Stemmate Tusco ramum millesimus ducit."
Thus we see that the vanquished and subject Etrus-
cans, though in Rome neither patrician nor noble,
were as proud of their illustrious pedigree as their
masters were of a long line of consular images.
It is remarkable that, in Etruscan sepulchral in-
scriptions, the name of the mother occurs at least
as frequently as that of the father, and always in
conjunction with the patronymic. Thus in the
same grave we recognise two sarcophagi as those of
a mother and a son, from the inscriptions on the
first—Larthia Fuisinei Lecnesa, or Larthia, daughter
of the house of Fuisine, and wedded to a Lecne or
Licinins : and Arnth Lecne Fuisinal, or Aruns Lecne
or Licinius, son of a daughter of the family of
Fuisine. From this equal importance which seems
to have been attached to maternal nobility as to
paternal, we may conceive that women held a much
higher place in Etruscan society than in that of
Greece or Rome; and this is confirmed by the
prominent part which they are always represented
as taking in banquets and social intercourse.