The Etruscan World (Routledge Worlds)

Figure 23.2 List of the Etruscan numbers.

obviously the length was variable and Censorinus himself states that the first four saecula
of Etruscan civilization lasted 100 years, while the following three lasted respectively
123, 119 and 119 years.20
As we can see, Etruscan saecula are something quite different from our conception of
centuries as well as from the ancient reckoning by generations: their function was strictly
related to the doctrine of the haruspices, and was the basis of the science of interpretation
of prodigies, which took place at every change of saeculum (see Chapter 26).
The Libri Fatales (part of the wider Rituales) described the correct length of a human
life, fixed in twelve hebdomadal, that is to say periods of seven years; everybody could
attend religious practices until they were 70, eventually gaining a further 14 years; at 84,
everybody “lost their minds” and could no longer receive prodigies (Cens., De die natali
14. 6 ).
Thus, people living more than 84 years were an exception21 and their death could
mean the end of a saeculum, which was of crucial importance to the Etruscans, whose
civilization had been prophesied to be going to last just ten saecula,22 When a comet
appeared in the sky at the death of Caesar and Octavian stated that it was the mark of his
adoptive father becoming a god, the haruspex Vulcanius stood up against this statement

1

2

3 _

4 5 6 7 8 9

10

13

17

18

19

20

30

40

50

100

1000 maniyiur (???)

masu (??)

mumly

seaIy

cealy

zaOrum

0unemza9rum(i)s

eslemzaOrumis

ciemza0r( u)m( i)s

ci sar

sar

nurrn (?)

cezp (?)

semcp (?)

Qu

zal

ci

sa

may

hu6

CHAPTER 2 3:Numbers and reckoning