THE

PRESENT STATE

OF THE

Republick of Letters.

For AUGUST 1731.

ARTICLE VII.

SCIPIONIS MAFFEI Origines Etrufcæ & Latinæ. Sive de Prifcis ac Primis ante Urbem Conditam Italiæ Incolis Commentatio. Qua quæ ad utriufque Gentis tum Etrufcorum tum Latinorum Initia & Linguam pertinent, curiofe Investigantur. Ex Italico Sermone in Latinum convertit. Joannis Georgius Lotterus Auguftanus. Lipfiæ Apud Jo. Fried. Gleditfchii B. Fil. 1731.

AUGUST 1731.

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That

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A Treatife concerning the antient Inhabitants of Italy before the building of Rome, wherein many things relating to the Origin and Language of the Tufcans and Latins are curiously investigated. M. Scipio Maffei.

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N Effay to discover the Origin of the Tufcans and Latins, is an attempt worthy of fo great an Antiquary as the Marquifs S. Maffei. Dionyfius Halicarnaffeus, a very curious enquirer into Antiquity, gives it as his Opinion, that it is impoffible to trace out the Origin of the Tufcans from any other Nation, they having nothing, fays he, either in their Language, Laws, or Cuftoms, in common with the reft of the World. And their Language was fo little known at Rome in the Days of A. Gellius, that he, talking of an Orator who affected obfolete Expreffions, and in pleading one Day used the words Apludam and Flocces, fays, he was laugh'd at by the whole Audience, and as little understood as if he had spoke Tufcan or Gallic. Neither do the Ancients feem to have known any thing certain concerning the Origin of the Latins, if we may judge from the great variety of their Opinions about it. So that thofe who are convinced by our Author's Reafons, cannot fufficiently applaud his Difcovery.

The occafion of writing this Treatife the Author tells us was, that in his fearch after Antiquities, having met with many old Monuments

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of very uncommon forms, and infcrib'd with Characters and Reprefentations of Things that have no relation either to the Greeks or Romans, and obferving that tho' fuch are frequently dug up all over Italy, fome of Brick, fome of Stone, and others of Metal, they are not however to be found in any other Country; he conceived a strong defire of enquiring more narrowly into them. In order thereto he procured as many of these Monuments themselves, and Draughts of others, as was poffible. Among the reft, having at Florence got a Copy of the Inscriptions on seven Tables of Brafs found at Engubium, four of which are infcrib'd with Tufcan, and two with Latin Characters, and one in the beginning with Tufcan, and towards the end with Latin Characters; he from thence took occafion to execute a Design he had long entertained, of inquiring into the Origin of thefe ancient Inhabitants of Italy, the Tufcans and Latins: To this he was encouraged by obferving that the Tuscan Characters on thefe and other Monuments, are not unlike the Samaritan Letters preferved on old Coins, and in the Samaritan Pentateuch; from which therefore he thought their Power and Signification might poffibly be learned.

The Author first proves from many Authorities of the Greek and Roman Hiftorians, and from the Tuscan Monuments that have been. found almost over all Italy, that the Etrurians or Tufcans were anciently poffefs'd of that whole Country, and that Etruria was a General name. for all Italy; That they were in after-times driven out of Lombardy by the Gauls, and out of that part of Italy which makes the Kingdom of Naples by feveral Greek Colonies; and at last

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confined to that Tract of Ground which borders on the Tiber and the Magra. They were fo famed for their Religion, that even the Greeks borrowed many of their Ceremonies from them; and for their Learning, that, as Livy writes, the Romans ufed anciently to inftruct their Youth in the Tuscan Learning, as they in his time did in the Greek. He fhows us that the Italick Sect founded by Pythagoras was properly the Tuscan, and that Pythagoras himself was educated there. He alfo proves that the Romans borrowed their Arms and Military Discipline, their Architecture, Statuary, Painting, Drefs, Publick Games, Gladiators, Proceffions, Triumphs, and almost every other Art and Ceremony from them.

In order to discover the Origin of the Tufcans, he obferves, that their diftinguishing Character was a strong defire of diving into futurity; hence their Divinations, Auguries, and Soothsaying; which Arts were almoft univerfally profeffed by them, and a great deference paid them by neighbouring Nations upon that account. He obferves further, that the ancient Inhabitants of Canaan are frequently reprefented in Scripture as followers of the fame Arts; and in this fimilitude of Character the Author thinks he has found out evident marks of the Tuscan Origin from that Country. In order to fupport this Conjecture, he fhows, that tho' the Land of Canaan, in a ftrict fenfe, was bounded betwixt the. River Jordan and the Sea, yet all that Coaft afterwards poffefs'd by the twelve Tribes, and the Lands bordering upon it, probably went by that general Name, and was poffefs'd by People little differing in Language or Manners from one another. This fuppofed, we find not far from that Part of the Land of Canaan where Abraham

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Abraham and Lot are faid to have entered it, the River Arnon, which comes very near in found to the Name of the principal River of Tuscany, the Arnus. Near the Banks of the Arnon was fituate the City of Aroer, the Inhabitants of which, we are told by Eufebius and Jerom, were driven out by the Moabites, that is, the Pofterity of Lot; and near this City we find the City of Etroth, which was probably part of the Territory of Aroer, Ifai. xvii. 2. Etroth, by a very ufual variation of Letters in thefe Languages, is Etrus, and hence the Etrufci or Tufcans. This fuppofition is confirmed by D. Halicarnaffeus, who writes that the Etrufci were so called from the Name of the Country which their Ancestors formerly poffefs'd. Our Author thinks it not improbable that the Inhabitants of Etroth being beat out by their old Enemies the Moabites, fled to the Sea fide, whence they took shipping, and, according to the manner of failing in those times along the fhore, might fettle in the Mouth of the Arnus, and give it that Name from Arnon the chief River in their own. Country. Another Proof of this Origin we have in D. Halicarnaffeus, who fays the Tufcans called themselves Rafeni from Rafena a certain Leader of theirs; and who this Leader was, and of what Country, we may conjecture from the fimilitude of his Name to that of Rafin, and Afena mentioned by Efdras, and Rafin a King of Syria mentioned in Scripture. We find likewife another Argument to fupport this Conjecture in the fimilitude of their Languages. The City Ar was the Metropolis of a Tract of Land upon the Banks of the River Arnon, called in Numb. xxi. 28. the high places of Arnon. Hence the Syllable Ar is very frequent on Tufcan Monuments,