- Daniele F. Maras –
Figure 23.4 Reconstruction of a groma, the principal tool of the Roman land surveyors, whose name
derived from Greek gnomon borrowed through the Etruscan language (*cruma).From other sources we know that Etruscan divination was based upon the classifi cation of
signs happening in the sky – from lightning to fl ying birds – to be interpreted by seers on
the basis of their place and direction within a fi xed scheme, determined by the oriented
observation point of the templum in terris.
The same procedure was used by the haruspices in orienting, partitioning and
interpreting the liver of sacrifi ced victims, such as sheep, as shown by the most famous
bronze model, dating from the fi rst century bce, called the Liver of Piacenza (Fig. 23.5).
The shape of the model is modifi ed to host an external fl at border that is divided into
sixteen regions, each inscribed with the name of a god, showing a strong resemblance
to Martianus’ series:^40 obviously the correspondence is not perfect owing to the several
centuries of distance between the sources and to different divination schools perhaps
existing even among the haruspices.
But it is possible to recognize a further clustering of the regions into four wider
partitions corresponding respectively to most favorable and favorable gods (from north
to east and from east to south) and to terrible and most terrible gods (from south to west
and from west to north), whose meaning is further highlighted by the simple division
into two parts, occurring on the back of the Liver, dedicated to sun (usil) and moon (tiur)
(Fig. 23.6).^41
And we happen to know the Etruscan word defi ning the “regions” of the sky, luθ (or
lut, pl. luθcva), occurring on a stone tile marking the “house of Tinia” (tinś lut) in an
auguraculum found in the sanctuary of Castelsecco near Arezzo.^42 Such a discovery perhaps
allows us to translate a passage of the Liber Linteus relating to something to be offered “to
Tinia in the tenth region” (tinś in śarle luθti).^43