Daniele F. MarasIt is not surprising that the Roman system was derived from the Etruscan, since we
know that for a long time children from the most important Roman families were sent to
Etruria in order to study litterae, thus ensuring long-term contact and cultural exchange
with Rome (Fig. 23.7).67
The use of numbers in religious practice and divinatory science was carried on by
Etruscan haruspices even after the complete Romanization of Etruria, as shown by late
authors such as Martianus Capella (see above), but by then they were integrated into
Latin culture. When lightning hit the base of a statue of Augustus causing the letter
“C” of “CAESAR” to fall down, the event was interpreted by seers: in one hundred days
(marked with “C” in the Roman system) the emperor would be accepted among the gods,
since “AESAR” is “god” in Etruscan (Suet., Aug., 97).68
A final remark is proper on a technical loanword in Latin, mantis(s)a, which means
“addition of weight,” according to Festus (Paul. Fest. 119, 9), “but worsening (or
decreasing) it, because un-useful”: it has been interpreted as something conceptually
similar to “tare,” an indispensable reckoning instrument for trade purposes, which had
been presumably theorized and named by Etruscans.69 But the obscurity of the passage
does not allow us to be sure.70
ValueEtruscanLatin
1 1 1
5 A V
10 X X
50 t L
100 * C
1000 © MFigure 23.7 The Etruscan numeral marking system compared to Latin.NOTES
1 Bonfante 2005: 153 ff.; Edlund-Berry 2006: 116 ff.
2 De Grummond 2006: 41 f.
3 Turfa 2004 and 2010.
4 Campbell 2000: 134.
5 A complete survey of actual knowledge about Etruscan numerals has been provided by
Agostiniani 1995.
6 Colonna 1978: 116.
7 Artioli, Nociti, Angelini 2 0 11: 10 31 ff.; but see also Agostiniani 1995: 23 ff.
8 Agostiniani 1995: 22.
9 Agostiniani 1995: 26.
10 Emiliozzi 1993 and Agostiniani 1997.
1 1 While before that date a different correspondence was applied (i~ 2, 3-4 , 5~6); Artioli,
Nociti, Angelini 2 0 11.
12 Agostiniani 1995: 30; Wallace 2008: 54 ff.
13 Giannecchini 1997.
14 Maras 2009: 364.
15 Agostiniani 1995: 31 ff.
16 Van Heems 2009.