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Etruscan and Italic Literacy and the Case of Rome

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Etruscan and Italic Literacy and the Case of Rome Author Query AQ1 Please provide the complete details of the reference if published. 0002514760.indd 1 4/25/2015 12:21:34 PM CHAPTER 13 Etruscan and Italic Literacy and the Case of Rome Daniele F. Maras “Writing probably spread quite quickly from the Greeks in Italy to some of the native peoples. How and exactly why this happened we do not know …” (Harris 1989: 149). In 25 years from the publication of W. V. Harris’ valuable monograph on Ancient Literacy, much has been added to our knowledge on the acquisition of writing in Orientalizing Italy; recent achievements allow us to sketch a clearer picture of the earliest history of literacy among the peoples of pre‐Roman Italy. This chapter intends to p rovide an introduction to the subject of schooling and literacy in the late Roman Republic and Empire, and to show how literacy had actually in Italy a longer and more complex h istory than is usually admitted (Cornell 1991). 1. The Origins Writing had already arrived in Italy by way of Greek commerce in the course of the eighth century BCE (Cornell 1991: 8; Bonfante and Bonfante 2002: 7–13). The earliest epigraphic document in Italy dating from this period, a graffito from Gabii in Latium, was considered by several scholars to be Greek (ευλιν(ος), an epithet: “spinning well”; or ευοιν, a Dionysian cheer) (lastly, Guzzo 2011: 63–65, with further bibliography and a new interpretation; and Powell 2009: 235–236); but Giovanni Colonna has recently suggested that it is Latin (ni lue, “do not untie me”—G. Colonna, in Bartoloni and Delpino 2004: 478–483) (Figure 13.1). This piece of evidence is particularly striking, because it seems to provide credibility to the tradition, recorded by Plutarch (Rom. 6.2), that Romulus and Remus had studied grammata—that is to say Greek letters—in Gabii in their youth (Peruzzi 1969; Cornell 1991: 25). Apart from this isolated attestation, the earliest Italian writing system derived from Greek is Etruscan, as attested by inscriptions A Companion to Ancient Education, First Edition. Edited by W. Martin Bloomer. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 0002514760.indd 201 4/25/2015 12:21:34 PM 202 Daniele F. Maras Figure 13.1 Drawing of the early Latin inscription from Osteria dell’Osa (ancient Gabii, Latium), tomb 482. Circa 780–770 BCE. (Drawing by Daniele F. Maras.) Original Greek model (Marsiliana d’Albegna) Difference among working alphabets in the seventh and sixth centuries BCE Greek alphabet (Miletus) Etruscan alphabet (Veii) Latin alphabet Figure 13.2 Difference among working alphabets of the seventh and sixth centuries BCE: in the upper line is represented the original Greek model in the form showed by the writing tablet of Marsiliana d’Albegna (circa 675–650 BCE). (Drawing by Daniele F. Maras.) from southern Etruria, dating from the end of the eighth and the beginning of the seventh century BCE (Colonna 1976a: 1606–1608). The form of the letters shows that it has an Euboean origin, either because of the presence of Euboean traders in south Etruria, or as a consequence of the presence of Etruscan travelers in the Euboean c­olonies at Pithekoussai and Cumae, as is documented by seventh century inscriptions. The Etruscans adopted the Euboean alphabet as it was, modifying the form of gamma (into a moon‐shaped C, most probably because of the influence of Corinthian writing: Colonna 1976a: 1609), and omitting some of the letters, which did not correspond to Etruscan sounds (Figure 13.2). As a matter of fact, in the Etruscan language, voiced stops (/b g d/) and the vowel /o/ were missing, while aspirated stops (/ph kh th/) were required, as well as a wider set of fricatives than in Greek (/f ś s h/) (Bonfante 2002: 63–65; Wallace 2008a: 29–32). Therefore, the earliest adaptations of the alphabet caused the abandonment of beta, delta, and omicron, while gamma was used for /k/ as an alternative to kappa and qoppa (Rix 2000: 202–203). 0002514760.indd 202 4/25/2015 12:21:34 PM Etruscan and Italic Literacy and the Case of Rome 203 The resulting alphabet remained unchanged until the middle of the seventh century, except for the introduction (about 675 BCE) of the graphic group HV or VH in order to express the sound /f/, missing in the Greek model, but necessary for the Etruscan language. At that time, writing had spread across the whole of southern Etruria—in the towns of Veii, Caere, Tarquinii, Volcii—, in Latium, and in the Faliscan area (Cornell 1991: 14). During this earliest period, it has been said that we cannot speak of a real Etruscan alphabet, but of a Greek alphabet used to write the Etruscan language; at the same time, Greek masters were at work adapting letters to the sounds of a foreign language and teaching writing to Etruscan scribes (Pandolfini and Prosdocimi 1990: 164–166). It should be noted that even the graphic group VH was borrowed from some Greek writing systems, where it is attested in the Archaic period (see, for instance, the Pamphilian spelling ϝhε, for the pronoun ἕ— Lejeune 1955: 114–115; Colonna 1970: 1598–1599, spec. note 102, and Id. 1976a: 1609–1610; Pandolfini and Prosdocimi 1990: 218–221). 2. Writing in the Orientalizing Period The earliest texts are in most cases either gift texts or isolated letters, some of them p roduction marks used by craftsmen (Maras 2012a: 103). The former include some o nomastic inscriptions, which simply record that the object is owned by the receiver of a gift (Benelli 2005: 206–207, with further bibliography). These early attestations concern either high‐ranking social relationships, with the c eremonial aspects of the meeting between local aristocrats and the (often aristocratic) Greek sailors and dealers who brought the new, Orientalizing cultural model; or particular fields of craftsmanship, improved and modified by technological and artistic novelties coming from the eastern Mediterranean (see, in general, Riva 2006). Aristocratic relationships and craftsmanship were therefore the channels through which writing was introduced into Italy. In this regard, it is interesting to note that writing was not reserved for high‐ranking personages, but was used by craftsmen in the production of pottery, bronzes, and textiles. Clearly, literacy was a technique handed down to craftsmen and artists, whose works typically carried inscriptions (Colonna 1988a: 1703–1705; Medori and Belfiore, forthcoming). Leaving aside for the moment production marks and isolated letters, we notice that most Etruscan inscriptions from the seventh century refer to the aristocratic gift‐exchange system, and among them are some of the longest Etruscan epigraphic texts, which at times exhibit literary and even poetic features (Maras, forthcoming, b). Actually, we must not be tempted to think of an illiterate culture as primitive, incapable of producing and transmitting knowledge or even literature. In antiquity as well as in our own times, a good deal of evidence demonstrates that oral literature can reach high levels and be widely diffused long before the introduction of writing (Goody and Watt 1968: 28–34). The transmission of Greek writing in central Italy at the end of the eighth century BCE met a well‐defined oral culture in Etruria as well as in Latium, which received the new expressive means and naturally adapted it to its needs. It is worth n oting that some of the earliest vase inscriptions, in the Greek as well as in the Etruscan 0002514760.indd 203 4/25/2015 12:21:34 PM 204 Daniele F. Maras cm 05 Figure 13.3 Long inscription on the foot of a bucchero cup from Narce (Faliscan area: Monte in Mezzo ai Prati, tomb 5). Rome, Etruscan National Museum of Villa Giulia. End of the seventh century BCE. Drawing by Daniele F. Maras. world, have unusually long texts, at times with literary features (Powell 1991: 158–186; spec. 182–186; and Powell 2009: 236–240). This is the case, for instance, of the famous Cup of Nestor from Pithekoussai, one of the earliest Greek epigraphic documents (Watkins 1995: 41–42; Ammirati, Biagetti and Radiciotti 2006: 15–16), and of a group of Etruscan inscriptions dating from the seventh century BCE (figs. 3, 10; Maras, forth- coming, b). The discovery sites of the latter are concentrated in the towns of Caere and Narce (the latter in the Faliscan area), which have been called the most literate towns of archaic Etruria (Colonna 1970: 1587, and Id. 1988a: 1708). What kind of literature do these earliest documents indicate? Obviously, southern Etruria had a solid oral tradition, with literary forms dating from before the i­ntroduction of writing, and the inscriptions simply recorded what just one g­eneration before would have been communicated by word of mouth (Maras, forthcoming, b). An important feature of archaic Greek texts is their metrical form (Ammirati, Biagetti, and Radiciotti 2006: 15), which relates them to the diffusion of the early epic poetry, and throws light on the most common and important learning system of oral cultures: mnemonic r­epetition helped by formulaic modules and verse. Some of the earliest Etruscan texts also seem to have had a metrical form, but refer neither to Greek, nor to local poetry; 0002514760.indd 204 4/25/2015 12:21:34 PM Etruscan and Italic Literacy and the Case of Rome 205 Figure 13.4 Inscription incised on the golden “Fibula Prenestina.” Rome, National Prehistoric Ethnographic Museum “L. Pigorini.” Circa 650 BCE. Above, former version with no mention of the recipient; below, final version. (Drawings by Daniele F. Maras.) they belong to the sphere of aristocratic gifts or to the symposium, that is, to the most significant social events of the Orientalizing aristocracies (Maras, forthcoming, a; regarding the connection of literacy with power, see Bowman and Woolf 1994: 1–16).
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