The Etruscan World (Routledge Worlds)

• Hilary Becker –

cursus honorum was not listed, we can still tell that he was a magistrate because he is
depicted on the sarcophagus relief being followed by attendants bearing a sella curulis, a
lituus, a ceremonial trumpet, and a double fl ute (see Fig. 46.10). The many epigraphical
and fi gural attestations reveal that it was an honor to hold these magistracies and one that
would serve to defi ne them for the rest of their lives as well as in the Afterlife.

ETRUSCAN PROPERTY AND STATE PROPERTY

We can also glean information about the city-state by considering the property that
it owned. We know little about whether there were public buildings for Etruscan
magistrates to use,^55 but we can say at least that Etruscan city-states owned property.
The ability to own property underscores the public recognizability of the state as an
entity while at the same time revealing that the state had some wherewithal with which
to acquire property. Objects owned by a city-state are marked with various permutations
of the word spura, or its genitive spural (of the city), whether it is the abbreviation sp
or spu or even the adjective spurana.^56 These inscriptions, dating from the Archaic and
Hellenistic periods, are wide-ranging, including Campania in the south to Populonia and
Fiesole in the north. From these inscriptions it is clear that the state could own a range of
items from vases (one of which was even bronze), a helmet, tiles, and a bronze weight. A
few of these objects merit particular consideration. First, how were the tiles used? Were
these tiles used for community owned buildings, about which we know little or nothing?
Other interesting objects in this category include a small bronze object, thought to have
been a weight (or a piece of aes rude), that was inscribed with the letters sp, as well as a
dolium from Chiusi inscribed mi spural, or “I am community (or city-state) property”.^57
Certainly the dolium, and perhaps the bronze object, fi nds resonance with the offi cial
weights and measures from the Athenian agora that read demosion.^58

BOUNDARIES AND THE DELINEATION OF

POLITICAL TERRITORIES

The Etruscans had a keen interest in boundaries, whether those boundaries were temporal
or sacral, and these boundaries also contribute to an understanding of their political
realities. Ritually defi ned spaces, such as the cities founded according to Etruscan ritual
(Etrusco ritu),^59 were an important facet of Etruscan religion so much so that boundaries,
whether celestial, terrestrial, or temporal were a part of the etrusca disciplina (see
Chapter 27).^60 Instances of this can be seen in the fact that the orientation of the sky
was important for augury and temporal orientation, and that even sacrifi cial livers were
carefully sectioned off and assigned to the relevant divine forces.^61 The Etruscans also had
calendars and believed that they even could determine the length of time allotted to their
own civilization.^62
Etruscans were also very interested in territorial boundaries and had words to
differentiate between various parts of their territory. The ritual text known as the Liber
Linteus refers to the sacnicleri cilthl spureri methlumeric enas, which may mean, “for the sacred
fraternity/priesthood (sacnica) of the citadel (cilth), for the city-state (spura) and for the
city (methlum) of ena (of whomsoever)”.^63 This ritual calendar was written at some point
between the middle of the third century and the early fi rst century bce and was written
with observations specifi c to one place (perhaps Perugia).^64 This calendar is city-state