1849.] Dennis's Etruria. 789 who wish to become personally acquainted with Etruscan civilization. At least half the manuscript was written in Italy, and the greater part was verified by subsequent visits to the scenes described. He pays his grateful thanks to Drs. Braun and Henzen, secretaries of the Archaeological Institute at Rome, to Prof. Migliarini of Florence, and Mr. Birch of the British Museum. The work is beautifully illustrated by drawings of masonry, tombs, and other objects, by plans of cities, by a large and excellent map of Etruria, etc. The whole number of illustrations is one hundred and nine. After an Introduction of about one hundred pages, the author takes up, in fifty-nine chapters, the cities of Etruria, Veii, Fidenae, Sutrium, Nepete, Falerii, Corneto, Tarquinii, Vulci, Tuscania, Orvieto, Faesulae, Vetulonia, Volterrae, Arretium, Clusium, Perusia, Rome, etc. Along with minute descriptions of the ruins at each place, historical notices, description of the existing scenery, and hints for the guidance of travellers, are given. In very early times, Etruria embraced the greater part of Italy. It was divided into three grand districts, Etruria Proper in the centre, Circumpadana in the north, and Campaniana in the south. Each was divided into twelve States, each represented by a city, as in Greece. Such seems to have been the extent of Etruria in the time of Tarquinius Priscus. But ere long the Gauls on the north, and various nations in the south, succeeded in compressing this dominion into the central region of Etruria Proper, the mother country, the peculiar seat of the Etruscan power. To this region only, Mr. Dennis devotes his pages. It includes nearly all of Modern Tuscany, the duchy of Lucca, and the Transtiberine portion of the Papal State, having the Apennines and the river Magra on the north, the Tiber on the east, and the Mediterranean on the west and south. Of the twelve cities, the most known were Tarquinii, Veii, Falerii, Volsinii, Vetulonia, Arretium, Cortona, and Perusia. It was, of old, densely populated, not only in those parts now inhabited, but in the tracts desolated by the malaria. On every hand are traces of by-gone civilization. The earliest occupants of this country seem to have been the Siculi or Umbri. Then a people of Greek descent, the Pelasgi, entered Italy at the head of the Adriatic, crossed the Apennines, joined the mountaineers, and took possession of Etruria. These drove out the old inhabitants, raised mighty walls and fortified them, till they, in turn, were conquered by a third race, called by the Greeks Tyrrheni, or Tyrseni, by the Roman Etrusci, and by themselves Rasena. These are conjectured to have established themselves about 290 years before the foundation of Rome, or B. C. 1044. There is, however, great confusion in regard to these races. The word Tyrrheni was sometimes applied to the Pelasgi, sometimes to the Etrusci. It seems to be certain that the land was inhabited before the Etruscans proper took possession of it; and that the Etruscans came from abroad. From what country they came, is still a subject of earnest discussion. The two data to guide us are the records of the ancients and the extant monuments. The ancient writers, with a solitary exception, mark the Etruscans as a tribe of Lydians. The dissentient voice is that of the accurate historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who asserts that Xanthus, a distinguished Lydian historian, makes no mention of such an emigration, and that there is no similarity between the Lydians and Etruscans in customs, laws, religion, language, etc. He supposes that they were an indigenous people of Italy. Niebuhr holds that they were a tribe from the Rhaetian Alps, who conquered the Tyrhene Pelasgi, the earlier possessors of the land. O. Müller supposes that the later element was from Lydia, but composed, not of natives, but of Tyrhene-Pelasgi, who had settled on the coasts of Asia Minor. Lepsius maintains that the Umbrians recovered strength, rebelled with success against the Pelasgi, and produced what is known as the Etruscan people. In this conflict of authorities, Mr. Dennis maintains that the theory of the Lydian origin has far the most probabilities in its favor. This clearly represents both the Roman and the Etruscan tradition. See Tacit. Ann. iv. 55. Why should Xanthus, a Greek of Sardis, and not a native Lydian, be preferred to the truthful Herodotus? They were contemporaries, or nearly so. Besides, there is some doubt of the genuineness of the works attributed to Xanthus. No fact can be more clearly established, says Mr. D., than the Oriental character of the civil and religious polity, the social and domestic manners, and many of the arts of the Etruscans. Like the Orientals, the Etruscans were subject to an all-dominant hierarchy. They were renowned for divination and augury. The origin of augury is particularly referred to Caria, an adjoining and cognate country to Lydia. The Assyrians, Lydians, Carians, Mysians, and Phrygians, being cognate and neighboring nations, what is recorded of one is generally applicable to all. The sports, games, and dances of the Etruscans, adopted by the Romans, are traditionally of Lydian origin. The double pipes were introduced from Phrygia, the trumpet from Lydia. Dionysius himself says that the Etruscan purple robes, the insignia of authority, were similar to those of the Lydian and Persian monarchs. The Etruscan language still, unfortunately, remains a mystery. The characters much resemble the Pelasgic or early Greek. We know a little of the genius of the language and its inflections. But beyond this, the wisest must confess their ignorance. About all that is known of the Etruscan tongue is, that it is unique like the Basque, an alien to every other language. It has been tested, again and again, by 1849.] Dennis's Etruria. 791 Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and every other ancient language, but it remains emphatically in the sepulchre, dead. The religion resembles the other theological systems of the East, having the same unbending, gloomy, imperious character, the same impenetrable shroud of symbolism and mysticism, widely unlike the plastic and lively creed of the Greeks. The three great deities answer to the Zeus, Hera, and Pallas-Athene of the Greeks. There were twelve great gods, six of each sex. The most striking peculiarity in the mythology was the doctrine of genii. History attests the eminence of the Etruscans in navigation and military tactics, agriculture, medicine, and other practical sciences; but above all in astronomy. They fixed the tropical year at precisely 365 days, 5 hours, and 40 minutes. In the arts which minister to comfort and luxury, they were eminent. The health and cleanliness of the Etruscan towns were insured by a system of sewerage. The cloaca maxima, at Rome, will be a lasting memorial of this. They drained lakes, tunnelled mountains, and reclaimed marshy grounds. In Etruria, woman was honored and respected; she took her place at table, by her husband's side, which she was never permitted to do in Athens. Her children assumed her name as well as that of their father's. Her grave was even more splendid than that of her lord. Nothing gives a more exalted idea of the power and grandeur of this ancient people than the walls of their cities. These enormous, uncemented piles of masonry, seem destined to endure to the end of time. They often show a beauty, a perfection of workmanship that has never been surpassed. The Etruscan sepulchres are always subterranean, like those of the Greeks, and they are modelled after the habitations of the living. The earliest works of art betray the great influence of Egypt. The working in clay was the most ancient. The people were always renowned for productions in terra cotta. Then followed the arts of casting and chiselling in bronze. The she-wolf of the capitol, mentioned by Livy x. 33, has an historical renown. Any one who has seen the Gregorian Museum in the Vatican, will need no further proof of the skill and art of the Etruscans. This magnificent collection of paintings, of vases, candelabra, specula, amphorae, shields, jewelry, etc., will be a memorial to posterity, and perhaps the only worthy one, of the late pope, Gregory XVI. Many rooms are filled with these elegant treasures, mostly from Vulci. The writer will only add that, so far as he had the means of personal observation at Fiesole, Arezzo, Cortona, Perugia, etc., he can attest to the great accuracy and fidelity of Mr. Dennis's delineations. No scholar should pass between Florence and Rome, without spending several days on these Etruscan sites. A more trustworthy and interesting guide than Mr. Dennis, he cannot desire. 4. LAYARD'S NINEVEH. We noticed, at some length, the English edition of this work, in the May Number of the B. S. 1849, p. 391 seq., and quoted some of the results of Mr. L.'s discoveries. We have since examined Mr. Putnam's American edition. It is in two octavo volumes, of 326 and 373 pages, and has all the illustrations of the original work unaltered, viz. thirteen plates and maps and ninety woodcuts, executed with artistic skill. It is sold at the moderate price of four and a half dollars. The paper is fair and the type is large and distinct, and the whole mechanical appearance, in every respect, workman-like. We are not surprised to hear it enjoys a remunerating sale. We ought also to add that Dr. Robinson has supplied an introductory Note, in which he has taken occasion to refute a calumnious assertion of the Quarterly Review, Dec. 1848, p. 122, that the American Mission was, in some degree, the occasion of the destruction of the Mountain Nestorians. This calumny never had the smallest foundation in fact. Dr. R. also shows that the name Chaldeans, which Mr. Layard applies to the native Christians of the mountains, does not strictly belong either to the Nestorians or Jacobites, the two sects into which the Syrian church was divided in the fifth century. We will only add that the work of Mr. Layard enjoys the singular felicity of being equally acceptable to the common and the learned reader. By his unaffected modesty, and his other sterling personal qualities, he has made his readers his warm friends, and they follow him with all kind wishes, as he resumes the toils which have already brought such a harvest to science and eastern literature. He has lately left Constantinople, with a physician, artist, and secretary, on his way to Trebizond, Mt. Ararat, and the ruins with which Central Asia is crowded. 5. SMITH ON THE VOYAGE AND SHIPWRECK OF ST. PAUL. This volume furnishes one of the most remarkable instances, within our knowledge, of patient research, of scrupulously minute investigation. A large part of a life appears to have been dedicated to the elucidation of the last two chapters in the Acts of the Apostles, or to preparation for such an inquiry. It is not too much to say that all our commentaries on this passage must now be rewritten. Mr. Smith is an educated gentleman, and a member of the Royal Society of London. He entered upon the investigations, whose processes and results, modestly and faithfully recorded, now lie before us, with eminent facilities. A winter's residence in Malta afforded him ample opportunities for personal examination of the localities of the shipwreck. In the ships of war stationed there, he found 1849.] Smith on the Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul.. 793 skilful and scientific seamen, familiar with the navigation of the Levant. In the Knights' Library he had access to an extensive collection of works, printed and manuscript, on the controversy as to the scene of the shipwreck and on the hydrography of the Mediterranean. He then devoted himself to the examination of the libraries and museums of Naples, Florence, Lausanne, and Paris. Returning to London, he continued the investigation in the libraries and medal-rooms of the British Museum, in the Records of the Admiralty, and in his own private library, rich in early seavoyages. Having been a yacht sailor of more than thirty years' standing, and with much practical experience in planning, building, and altering vessels, he was able to bring a kind of knowledge to the interpretation of the passage which no commentator has possessed. We subjoin a few of the results which Mr. Smith's pains-taking inquiries supply. Paul's company embarked in a ship of Adramyttium, a seaport of Mysia, on the eastern shore of the Aegean, opposite Lesbos. On the second day, they touched at Sidon, sixty-seven geographical miles from Caesarea. Loosing from thence, they were forced, by contrary winds, to run under the lee of Cyprus. A ship's course from Sidon to Myra is W. N. W., leaving Cyprus on the right. The contrary wind must have been from the west, which prevails in this part of the Mediterranean in the summer. Under these circumstances, they left Cyprus on the left hand, doing as the most accomplished seaman of the present day would do under similar circumstances. Favored, as they probably were, by the landbreeze and currents, they arrive, without any unusual incident, at Myra in Lycia, then a flourishing city, now a desolate waste, and now about three miles from the sea. The company were there transferred to a cornship from Alexandria bound for Italy. From the dimensions of one of these ships, given by Lucian, they appear to have been quite as large as the largest class of merchant ships of modern times. Myra lies due north from Alexandria, and its bay is well fitted to shelter a wind-bound ship. Their progress, after leaving Myra, was extremely slow, for it was many days before they came over against Cnidus," at the entrance to the Aegean sea. As the distance between Myra and Cnidus is not more than 130 geographical miles, the delay was probably caused by unfavorable winds, which may be inferred from the word μókis, with difficulty. The course of a ship, on her voyage from Cnidus to Italy, is by the north side of Crete, through the Archipelago, W. by S. But this would be impossible with a north-west wind. With that wind, the ship could work up to Cnidus, because she had the advantage of a weather shore and a westerly current; but there the advantage would cease. The only alternative would be to wait at Cnidus for a fair wind, or else to run under the lee of Crete, xarà Zalμárny, in the direction of Salmone, which is the eastern end of Crete. VOL. VI. No. 24. 66 67 |