Jean Hadas-Lebel

La parola tezan, che occorre alla quarta linea del cippo di Perugia, compare in tutto cinque volte nell'epigrafia etrusca. In questo articolo si intende mostrare che il significato più verosimile della parola tezan, sul cippo di Perugia come altrove, doveva essere quello di «privato, proprio». Sul cippo, la parola tezan si riferisce probabilmente ad una via privata, il cui uso era stato concesso da una famiglia ad un'altra. Essendo tezan un aggettivo, il presente lavoro è l'occasione per riflettere sullo statuto dell'aggettivo in etrusco e particolarmente sul suo uso sostantivato. Parole chiave: Etrusco, epigrafia, aggettivo, sostantivazione, diritto privato, servitù di passaggio The word tezan, which appears on the fourth line of the Cippus Perusinus, occurs four more times in the Etruscan epigraphy. This article intends to show that the most likely meaning of the word tezan, on the Cippus Perusinus as well as elsewhere, must have been that of «private, own». On the Cippus Perusinus, the word tezan probably refers to a private way, the use of which had been granted by one family to another. Since tezan is an adjective, this paper is an opportunity to reflect on the status of the adjective in Etruscan and particularly on its substantivization.

It is generally accepted that the Etruscan verb lupu- means "to die". The hypothesis we wish to advance in this article is that this is a secondary meaning and no more than a euphemism. The original meaning of lupu- must have been "to go (away)". This interpretation is in accordance with the Etruscan conception of death, as we know it: in many tomb paintings, indeed, the deceased is represented traveling, on foot, on horseback or on a wagon, to the afterlife. The proper word for "to die" in Etruscan was probably leine, which appears in a small number of inscriptions of Volterra, as already suggested by C. Pauli.

Traditionally, lat. corōna is considered a loanword from gr. κορώνη, although this word means only very rarely "crown". Even if we do not fundamentally question this etymology, we wonder whether it would not be possible to link lat. corōna to etr. χuru, whose meaning we believe was precisely "crown". The relationship between etr. χuru and lat. corōna would be basically the same as that observed between etr. φersu and lat. persōna, with the introduction of a-na suffix of Etruscan origin. A compromise solution would consist in regarding etr. χuru(na) the intermediary link between gr. κορώνη and lat. corōna.

In this article, I tried to explain why the great French etruscologist Jules Martha, at the end of the XIX century, was mislead into believing that Etruscan was a Finno-Ugric language (which it is definitely not, although it shows some typological affinities with this family). This article is dealing with this crucial moment of Jules Martha’s career, when the young archeologist he was discovered and finally adopted this rather peculiar theory about the origin of the Etruscan tongue. But strangely enough, he made his choice more for archeological than linguistic reasons.

"From the Athenian δημοκρατία to the Roman rēs pūblica : the meχ rasnal, or the Etruscan link"

The Etruscan regime called meχ rasnal (which we propose to translate « power of the people ») is usually supposed to have been a mixed constitution very close to the Roman republic. And for good reason. According to the theory developed here, the Latin noun phrase rēs pūblica is nothing but the translation of etr. meχ rasnal. Which means that the name and the concept of « republic » must not be considered a Roman invention, but an Etruscan one. But that is not all. We believe that etr. meχ rasnal itself is a loan translation from gr. δημοκρατία. If this proves true, the Roman rēs pūblica would thus be the daughter of the Etruscan meχ rasnal and the grand-daughter of the Athenian δημοκρατία. This new genealogy of the Roman rēs pūblica is not without consequences. It forces us to reconsider thoroughly the traditional chronology according to which the Athenian δημοκρατία and the Roman rēs pūblica were born almost in the same year (-509 / -508).

Le terme étrusque meχ est attesté cinq fois dans l’épigraphie de l’ancienne Toscane : quatre fois dans le syntagme meχ rasnal (et sa variante meχ rasn(e)a) et une fois dans le syntagme meχ θuta. Etr. meχ a reçu toute sorte d’interprétations. L’hypothèse nouvelle que nous avançons et développons dans cet article est que ce mot signifiait « pouvoir ». En ce sens, les syntagmes meχ rasnal et meχ θuta doivent se rendre respectivement par « pouvoir du peuple » et « pouvoir unique ». Autrement dit, ces syntagmes représentent la traduction étrusque de gr. δημοκρατία et μοναρχία. Cette hypothèse est riche d’implications quant aux relations culturelles gréco-étrusques. On sait depuis longtemps l’immense influence que les Hellènes exercèrent, dès le haut archaïsme, sur les Étrusques dans des domaines aussi variés que la religion, la mythologie, l’architecture, la peinture, la sculpture, la céramique ou la métallurgie. À cette liste qui est loin d’être exhaustive, il convient maintenant d’ajouter la politique.

Latin, it is well-known, makes a very subtle distinction, in its institutional terminology, between the notions of urbs, cīuitās, populus and nōmen. These four notions are closely related, since the urbs is the place of the cīuitās, which in turn is the political aspect of the populus, the latter being an emanation of the nōmen. One might even say that between these notions, arranged in this order, there is a kind of semantic continuum in which each one is metonymically linked to the following: urbs to cīuitās, cīuitās to populus, populus to nōmen. This threefold opposition, which is central in Latin, does not exist in every language. Did sabellic languages possess the same threefold distinction as Latin, which was genetically closely related to them? This is the question that the present article seeks to address. Four sabellic terms, likely to render one of the four above mentioned notions, have been considered: toutā-, okri- (both of them pan-sabellic), nōm(e)n- (attested in Oscan and Umbrian) and vereiā- (only known in Oscan), for which we propose a new etymology.

Le latin, on le sait, établit dans sa terminologie institutionnelle une assez subtile distinction entre les notions d’urbs, de cīuitās, de populus et de nōmen. Ces quatre notions entretiennent entre elles des rapports très étroits: l’urbs est en effet le lieu de la cīuitās, qui est la version politique et sédentaire du populus, lequel est en définitive une émanation du nōmen. On pourrait même dire qu’il y a entre ces notions — rangées dans cet ordre — une sorte un continuum sémantique au sein duquel chacune possède un lien métonymique avec sa voisine: urbs avec cīuitās, cīuitās avec populus, populus avec nōmen. Si elle est centrale en latin, cette triple opposition n’existe cependant pas dans toutes les langues. Était-elle connue des langues sabelliques, cousines du latin? Telle est la question qu’il s’agira ici d’élucider. Seront analysés quatre termes capables de correspondre, pour le sens, à l’une ou l’autre des quatre notions susdites: toutā-, okri- (tous deux pan-sabelliques), nōm(e)n- (attesté en osque et en ombrien) ainsi que vereiā- (connu de l’osque seulement), pour lequel nous proposons une nouvelle étymologie.


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Le mot putlumza, gravé sur le fond d'une oenochoé étrusque du début du iii e s. av. J.-C., est le dérivé en-za d'un terme non attesté mais qu'il est aisé de reconstituer : *putlum. Ce dernier a vraisemblablement été emprunté à une langue italique, sans doute au vieux latin *pōtlom (> lat. class. pōcolom / pōculum) avec le sens de « vase à boire ». Le maintien du-t-devant le-l-prouve l'ancienneté de l'emprunt. Lorsque la mode des pocola deorum, ces vases consacrés de fabrication romaine, se diffusa en Étrurie au début du iii e s., le vieil emprunt putlumza fut réutilisé sporadiquement avec le sens de « vase à libation » dont son correspondant latin pōcolom s'était entre-temps enrichi. C'est ainsi que le nom de putlumza fut donné à des vases comme notre oenochoé, très différents par leur forme et leurs dimensions des véritables pocola deorum, mais pourvus d'une fonction rituelle identique. La découverte, il y a peu, au Musée de Berlin, d'une oenochoé en tout point semblable aux cruchons du groupe des pocola deorum mais portant une inscription étrusque prouve toutefois que l'atelier qui produisit les pocola deorum fabriqua aussi des objets destinés au marché étrusque. En définitive, l'oenochoé putlumza mérite moins son nom, qu'elle a en quelque sorte usurpé, que l'authentique pocolom étrusque du Musée de Berlin. abstRact The word putlumza, carved on the bottom of an etruscan oenochoe from the 3rd century B.C., is derived from an unattested *putlum with a za-suffix. This word might be a loan from an Italic language, probably old Latin *pōtlom (> class. lat. pōcolom / pōculum) which means « drinking vase ». The conservation of the-t-just before the-l-proves how ancient the loan is. When the pocola deorum, these Roman-made sacred vases, started to spread across Etruria at the beginning of the 3rd century B.C., the old loanword putlumza was sporadically reused with a new meaning, « libation vase », which its Latin equivalent pōcolom had gained in the meantime. Thus the name putlumza was given to such vases of this oenochoe type, whose shape and size are very different from the real pocola deorum, but whose religious fonction is basically the same.

Résumé/Abstract L'inscription de la Schnabelkanne de Lattes, gravée en scriptio continua sur le bec du vase, se compose de vingt-neuf lettres. L'emploi du sigma pour noter la sifflante simple et du san pour noter la sifflante forte prouve de façon indiscutable que l' ...