- chapter 18: Political systems and law –
information on the prominent gens Alethna, seven of whose members held offi ces during
the second half of the third century and second century bce.^30 Most of these magistracies
were probably carried out in Musarna itself. One member of the family, Arnth Alethna,
was an urban zilath (zilach[nce] spurethi) and it seems that the spura (i.e. Etruscan for urban
center) in question could reasonably be Musarna.^31 Another member of the Alethna gens
had an even more specifi c title, clearly indicating that he was not a local zilath, because
his inscriptions states that he was a zilath tarchnalthi, a “zilath at Tarquinia”.^32
Of all the different magisterial titles that contain the term zilath, the zilath mechl rasnal
is perhaps the best known and, of late, most debated. The key to understanding this phrase
lies with the term rasna, which the Greek author Dionysius of Halicarnassus defi ned as
the term that the Etruscans used to describe themselves, different from “Tyrsenoi” or
“Tyrrhenoi” as the Greeks called them or “Tusci” as the Romans did.^33 So if Dionysius is
correct that rasna is the word used to describe all of Etruria, then this word may take on a
federal character. That said, the term zilath mechl rasnal has been translated as a zilath “of
the Etruscan people” (i.e. mechl, an unknown word, being read as “people”). Thus defi ned,
the zilath mechl rasnal, must be, in that case, a federal magistracy and thus, the person
who presided over the Etruscan League (discussed below). But the head of the Etruscan
League was, according to Livy, a sacerdos.^34 This position came to be known as an aedilis
during the Julio-Claudian period and a praetor (Etruriae) XV populorum by the Hadrianic
era.^35 In the Elogia Tarquiniensia above, the term praetor was equated to the role of a zilath.
But according to Rix’s interpretation, the term zilath mechl rasnal is not equivalent to
the praetor (Etruriae) XV populorum because in the Julio-Claudian period, when we know
that a zilath is thought to be a praetor, the leader of the League is only an aedilis. Further
problems arise when we consider an inscription from Orvieto from the Tomba Golini I,
one of only three commemorating individuals who achieved this rank (the other two are
from Tarquinia proper).^36 Among other magistracies, Vel Leinies was a mechlum rasneas
clevsinsl zilachnve. But what does the modifying term clevsinsl add to our understanding of
this magistracy? Clevsinsl is the genitive adjective for the city of Chiusi; if this is added to
the phrase as it is traditionally understood, it is clear that “a federal magistrate (i.e. of all
the Etruscan people) of Chiusi” does not make much sense. This prompted Helmut Rix
(and then Adriano Maggiani) to attempt to redefi ne rasna and they suggest that the word
may not have the federal sense of “Etruscan” but simply “people” (populus).^37 Viewing
the Etruscans as “peoples” fi nds resonance as Livy does not refer to the 12 city-states of
Etruria, but to the 12 peoples,^38 and this preference is retained in the aforementioned
title of the imperial magistrate of the Etruscan League. A relief from Julio-Claudian
Caere includes pictorial personifi cations of the cities of Tarquinia, Vulci, and Volsinii,
but these personifi cations are labeled as the groups that comprise these cities, that is,
rather than “Tarquinii”, the city known today as Tarquinia, it is labeled as Tarquinienses,
the “people of Tarquinia” (Fig. 8.25).^39
Under this hypothesis, if rasna is to be read as populus, mechl might be equivalent to
the Latin res, thus rendering mechl rasnal as res publica, the Latin term for state. If this is
true, then Vel Leinies was a zilath of the Clusine state. With this redefi nition in mind,
a scenario emerges such that there could be zilaths in the capital cities but also in some
minor centers, like Musarna. Perhaps it was then that the zilath mechl rasnal had authority
over all the other zilaths, people and land within the area of the city-state. This idea is
strengthened by the Tabula Cortonensis (discussed below), wherein there is a zilath mechl
rasnal, as well as eponymous zilaths, who are not the same individuals.