Abstract

This study seeks a clearer understanding of the cultural contexts and connotations attributed to Etruscan loanwords of political-military significance in order to clarify the Roman perception of Etruscan culture with respect to their sociopolitical and military standing. Presented here is a contextual analysis of a group of probable Etruscan loanwords in Latin that pertain to the political-military semantic sphere. By the time these words appear in the texts of later historians, grammarians, and antiquarians, their origins along with military and political conventions and symbology, have been displaced from their Etruscan cultural context and appropriated by Roman culture. However, little is known of both the Etruscan language and sociopolitical structure from which such words were borrowed. Scholars are left with scant evidence in the forms of various inscriptions and ceramics in addition to artistic and archaeological evidence, which provides little factual indication about the systems of Etruscan governance and military organization. There are a number of loanwords known to be of Etruscan origin which signify occupations, material objects, and institutions directly related to the Roman political and military sphere. Roman authors' and historians' usages of these Etruscan loanwords of the political and military sphere is evaluated here by means of a thorough examination of the various contexts in Latin literature. In addition, etymologies constructed by Roman grammarians and antiquarians provide explicit accounts of the Roman understanding of Etruscan loanword origins, thus placing them within the greater Roman cultural narrative. Findings indicate that a number of Etruscan loanwords denoting aspects political or military life have associations respectively with Roman national identity and class status.

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