MASTARNA OR SERVILTS T17LLIUS.
[To TER EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."' SIR, —The darkness which envelopes the earliest history of Rome is first broken by the figure of Servius Tullius, the sixth King, according to Roman tradition. The rampart of Servius is still to be seen at Rome, near the baths of Diocletian and the railway station,—so strangely are the memories of the remotest antiquity and of the Empire, already verging to decline, mixed up with the most modern requirements of every-day life. The reign of Servius was the precursor of the Republic ; and many well-known institutions of the Commonwealth were dated back to this popular King, who began life as a captive—per- haps a slave—became, like David, the King's son-in-law, and succeeded by his own merits in winning a crown which belonged to others of hereditary right. The first four Kings of Rome are merely conventional figures,—types, alternately, of warlike and peaceful rulers. The two Tarquins represent an Etruscan dynasty, depending on aristocratic sup- port, and degenerating at last into an oppressive autocracy. Servius comes between, as a revolutionary prince, who courted the favour of the people, and justified by his wise and popular measures what had been at first an irregular assumption of power. Even at this distance of time, he has a distinct char- acter of his own, and we do not wonder that next to the mythical founder of the city, Servius was the most revered by the Romans of all their early monarchs. This affection of the people for his memory has, perhaps, helped to confuse his real history. There were, we know, several versions of it. The one I have already referred to was preferred by Livy ; but the Etruscans had another and very different one, which has, curiously enough, come down to us in a speech of the Emperor Claudius, a student of Etruscan antiquities, recorded in an inscription preserved at Lyons. According to this, Servius, whose Etruscan name was Mastarna, was the comrade of Ccolius Vibenna, who led a band of soldiers from Etruria to Rome, where the Ccolian Hill was called after him, and a forti- fied camp (Castra Peregrina) preserved the remembrance of his Etruscan mercenaries, who had doubtless taken an active part in the domestic struggles of the rising State. Mr. Gard- thausen, in his interesting little treatise,* has adopted the Etruscan account of the origin of Servius, and aided by the curious inscriptions and drawings which were discovered in 1857 in a tomb near Vulci, a ruined city in Etruria, has sue- needed in constructing a life for this ancient king which seems to me by no means improbable, and has, at any rate, the merit of an ingenuity worthy of a German scholar. He supposes that Servius was really himself a Tarquin, and the son of his pre- decessor Tarquinius Prisons. Being, however, like Ishmael, the on of a bondwoman, he had no legal right to the throne, but obtained it with the aid of his friend, Ccelius Vibenna, and his Etruscan soldiers of fortune, after killing, in single combat, his own half-brother, the legitimate claimant. He then gives Rome democratic institutions, and governs in the interests of the people, against the wishes of the Etruscan aristocratic party, whom he tries to conciliate, however, by marrying his daughter to the hereditary prince, his slain brother's son or grandson. The latter prefers revenging his father to waiting for the peaceable succession at the King's death. So, Servius is murdered, as described by Livy, and the grateful Romans, from respect to his memory, conceal his fratricide and usurpation,` and explain his servile name by making him the son of a noble prisoner of war from a foreign city. For the proof of all this I must refer your readers to the book it- The book is in Gr.rman It is called,'! Mastarna; or, Servius Tullius. With an Int,oduotion on the Extent' or the Etruscan Dominion." With a plate. Leipzig : Volt and Co. 1882.
self, but I may mention that " Tarquinius " (shortened into " Tarena," or some similar form), is a name often met with in Etruscan inscriptions, especially in tombs near Cane, where the Royal Family of Rome took refuge after their expulsion. It is connected with the names of the Etruscan cities Tarquinii, north, and Terracina, south of Rome. " Marcius," written "Marces," or " Arces," is also an Etruscan name; hence, "Marces Tama," or "Mastarna," would be "Manias Tar- quinius."
The fratricide, which may have given rise to the legend of the death of Remus, Mr. Gardthausen infers from the wall paintings in the tomb, of which he gives an engraving. Here, as is not un- usual, pictures of slaughter seem to replace the human sacrifices that had in ruder times attended the funeral of an Etruscan chief. There are two rows of these pictures, representing, in. parallel columns, events in Grecian and Etruscan history. Mr. Gardthausen aptly compares the paintings of types from the Old Testament, under the antitypes from the New, in mediaeval art, as in church windows. Now, in the Vulci tomb, Cozdius Vibenna, who, it may be remembered, is mentioned also by Tacitus, appears opposite to Ajax. Mastarna (written in the unpronounceable Etruscan way, " Mcstrn a") stands near, and cuts the bands by which his friend's hands are fastened together. Lower down, on the Grecian side, the Theban brother-princes, Eteocles and Polynices, kill each other ; on the Etruscan, a corresponding pairof warriors fight, but only one seems about to be slain. His name is Cneius Tarquinius Rumach, i.e., Romanus ; his conqueror is called Marces Cami trim, or, (omitting the unknown Cami) Mastarna, i.e., Marchis Tarquinius. The argu- ments for this view are presented in the book at considerable length. I have only attempted a brief summary.
The Etruscan language is written from right to left, and has an Oriental look,—like Hebrew without points. It has never been interpreted ; only some proper names are known, from a comparison with their Latin equiva- lents in bilingual inscriptions. There is thus ample room for conjecture in vocalising these uncouth collections of con- sonants, and transforming them into well-sounding Latin ; but Mr. Gardthauson's conjectures have at least as much plausibility as many I have real on sacred and Assyrian " history from the
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