- chapter 18: Political systems and law –
specifi c much as the Brontoscopic calendar of Nigidius Figulus was said to be written
specifi cally for Rome.^65 If priests were recording observances discretely in each city, it
would be important to know just where the city and all of its boundaries, such as those
referred to in the Liber Linteus, begin and end. Knowing where the boundaries are located
for a city’s pomerium, immediate ager, and the boundaries of its city-state would also have
important political implications in terms of day-to-day administration, war, boundary
disputes, and the like. The political importance of boundaries can be seen in the time of
Tarquinius Priscus when the town of Collatia submitted to the Romans, because not only
did Collatia surrender their citizens, their city, fi elds, shrines, and water to Rome, but
even their boundaries (terminos).^66
ETRUSCAN BOUNDARY MARKERSOf particular interest in this context is understanding the markers that Etruscans used,
predominantly in North Etruria, to demarcate their territory. These markers bear the
word tular, meaning “boundaries” or “confi nes” and mark boundaries or pomeria, more
precisely “the public boundaries emanating from the authority of the state” (Fig. 18.7).^67
The fi nd spots of markers labeled tular spural have been plotted in an attempt to determine
what civic boundaries they once marked. Giovanni Colonna believes that extant markers
are found along both what might be termed the limits of the urbs and also the ager of a
city.^68 Following Colonna’s reading, the boundaries of the spura include all that might
be in the civitas. A different picture is presented by a boundary marker installation at
Bolsena (Volsinii Novi) that was found before one of the main entrances leading into
the city.^69 The inscription reads thval methlum, and while the meaning of the fi rst word
remains unknown, the second word methlum describes the urbs. Thus this stone marked
the entrance to the pomerium of Bolsena, the boundary inside which an augur could take
his readings (see Chapter 26).^70
Figure 18.7 Boundary stone from Poggio di Firenze reading tular sp[ural].
Second century bce. Lambrechts 1984, 326 Fig. I.