In this painting in the Tomba Golini the inscriptions give us much
valuable information as to the connexion between the two persons.[64]
Above the first we read: ‘Vel lecates arnthial ruva larthialisa clan
velusum nefs marniu spurana eprthnec tenve mechlum rasneas cleusinsl
zilachnve pulum rumitrine thi ma[l]ce clel lur.’ In translation the
text runs: ‘Vel Lecates, Arnth’s brother,[65] son of Larth, and
descendant of Vel. He held the offices of Maro urbanus (_spur_ means
town) and Eprthne (secular official title) and was Zilach (dictator)
of the Etruscan people in Clusium....’ The rest is unintelligible. It
is interesting in the inscription to come across the name by which the
Etruscans called themselves, _rasneas_; Dionysius of Halicarnassus
(i. 30) was therefore justified in saying that the Etruscans called
themselves Rasenas. The name Larth is common in Etruscan inscriptions.
The Romans knew it and called the well-known Etruscan king by his full
name, Lars Porsenna (in Etruscan, Larth Pursna).[66]
[Illustration: FIG. 31. SYMPOSIUM IN THE TOMBA GOLINI AT ORVIETO]
[Illustration: FIG. 32. WALL-PAINTING IN THE TOMBA GOLINI]
[Sidenote: TOMBA GOLINI]
We now turn to the inscription above the bearded man on the same couch;
his name is Arnth Leinies, son of Larth, and descendant of Vel; his
official titles follow, and the inscription ends: ‘ru[va] l[ecates
velus] amce,’ i. e., was brother of Vel Lecates. Thus we have two
brothers reclining on the same couch, and the inscription makes it
probable that the other symposiasts, too, are not chance revellers, but
members of the same family, united in the picture as they were in life
and in the grave.
In the same tomb, to the left of this scene, we see a table, bearing
several metal vessels, a thymiaterion, and an ivory box for incense,
and flanked by two candelabra with lighted candles stuck into birds’
beaks (fig. 32). The Etruscans were considered inventors of the
art of candlemaking and taught the Romans to manufacture different
kinds of candles, from big wax candles—candelae and cerei—to cheap
dips—sebaceae. The Italic peoples used candles and candlesticks until
Roman Imperial times, though in the last centuries they also had oil
lamps, the manufacture and use of which they had learned from the
Greeks; the oldest clay lamps found in the northern part of Italy date
from about 300 B.C.[67] To the left of the table is seen a naked slave
with a jug and a dish; to the right a young man in a light-coloured,
sleeved chiton, who has been conjectured to be another servant. But
again the inscription affords positive information: ‘Vel leinies
larthial ruva arnthialum clan velusum prumaths avils semphs lupuce’;
i.e. ‘Vel Leinies, Larth’s brother, son of Arnth and descendant of
Vel; he died (_lupuce_) at the age of 7.’[68] So the boy is son of the
hindmost man on the banqueting-couch and belongs to the noble family
interred in the tomb.
FOOTNOTES:
[63] Athenaeus i. 28 b.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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