PART
5 –
Ch.XXXIII.24
The
Pelasgians or proto – Latins (Arimii)
(The
Pelasgians from the northern parts of the
XXXIII.
24. Tursenii, Etruscii and Agathyrsii.
The ancient Etruscii, called by Greeks Tursanoi,
Tursenoi, Turrenoi, and by the Romans Etrusci and Tusci, a
people of Pelasgian origin (Hellanicus,
fragm. 1 in Fragm. Hisst. Gr.I.p.44), had formed in the beginning only one
branch of the great, powerful and civilized family of the Arimii.
The Etruscii, Flavius Josephus tells us, were called Romans (c. Apion. II. 4), exactly like the
ancient inhabitants of Iberia (Hispania) and like the Sabinii; but under this
political name must be understood the ancient and general name of Arimi,
Aramani and Arimani.
Roma had been in the beginning an Etruscan city
(Dionys. Hal., lib. I. 29).
The Tiber, called Rumon in the most ancient sacred books of Italy, appears with Virgil as an Etruscan river (Aen. VII.
v. 242; Georg. I. v. 499). Another river of Etruria, which flows alongside
Vulci, was called Armina or Armine in Greek form.
An ancient king of
the barbarian Turseni – we cannot know for sure which, from Italy, or those
from the eastern parts of Europe – had the name Arimnestus (Pausanias,
Descr. gr. lib.VI. 3).
Romulus himself, according to an Italic tradition,
had been and Etruscan emperor (Servius,
Virg. Georg. II. 530).
Both these peoples
had the same characters of the early civilization. Even since the oldest of
times, there existed a unity of religion, and a great racial affinity, between
the Etruscans and the Romans.
The Romans had always
considered the Etruscan religion as the most antique and orthodox national
religion. The religious rites and ceremonies of the Etruscii were acknowledged
as the most holy; the Roman temples were always full of Etruscan ornaments; the
Roman liturgy was Etruscan; the Etruscan priests were venerated as the most
learned in the great secrets of antique religion. The Etruscan prophets and
priests were called at all the extraordinary phenomena, in order to study and
interpret them. Only they alone had the knowledge to explain the gods’
admonitions and to appease their anger. No great state act could take place, no
war could be declared, no peace could be signed, without the Etruscan priests
being consulted.
The Tursenii also
appear as a people of Arimic origin, in the ethnographic traditions of the
Germans. The giants, the ancient and powerful race of men from the primitive
times of history, figure in the legends and traditions of the Germans under the
name hrimthurs, hrimthursar, hrimthurse, meaning Tursenii Arimi (Grimm, D. Myth. 1854, p. 487 seqq).
There were two
traditions in Greek antiquity about the geographical origin of the Etruscii or
Tursenii of Italy.
We find one of
these versions with Herodotus (I.
94), in which one so-called Tyrsenos,
the son of king Atys of Lydia, migrating with a part of the inhabitants of his
country, had landed on the shores of Italy and had settled in Umbria, where, by
the name of their king, they had begun to call themselves Turseni.
Lydia had formed,
as we know, even since the most ancient of times, an Arimic territory (see
Ch.XXXIII. 13), so the tradition of Herodotus also sees the Tursenii of Italy
only as a branch of the Arimic family.
We find another
tradition about the geographical origin of the Etruscii, with Dionysius of Halikarnassus (I. 28),
that Tyrrhenus, the first king of
the Tursenii who had settled in Italy, had been a son of king Telephus. According to this latter
version, the ancient dwellings of the Etruscii seem to have been in the
northern parts of the Balkan peninsula, in that region over which had once
ruled Telephus, also called Latinus.
As results from the
occupations, the forms of civilization, and the customs of the Etruscii, both
these versions seem to have had a historical basis.
Although the
ancient Etruscii formed a homogenous people from the point of view of their
nationality, they appear in the Italic history under two different aspects.
One part of the
ancient inhabitants of Etruria, namely the Tursenic tribes settled along the
western shores of Italy, appear, even since very remote times, as a famous
people of navigators, traders and pirates (Livy,
lib. V. 33).
The entire region
of the Mediterranean, between Italy, Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily, had in
antiquity the name the Tursenic Sea,
Tursenis
thalassa, Tyrrhenum Mare, Mare Tuscum.
It is very probable
therefore that this population of traders and brave navigators from the western
parts of Etruria, could have been a migration from Lydia and the islands of the
Archipelagos, because the Lydiens, as Diodorus
Siculus tells us (VII. 13), had been the first to rule the seas after the
Trojan War.
In regard to the
continental regions of Etruria though, the ethnic elements differ. Instead of
tribes with occupations connected to the sea, we find here a vigorous people of
shepherds and peasants, with an antique civilization, a strong military
organization, and endowed with an extreme force of endurance, we can say a
people of another geographical origin, of another history.
These Etruscan
tribes really seem to have been just a migration from the eastern parts of
Various remains of
an ancient Tursenic population still appear in the
A significant group
of Pelasgian Turseni still existed around 435-400bc in the peninsula of Mount
Athos (Thucydidis, lib. Iv. 109; Herodotus, lib. I. 57).
A people of Getic
origin named Trausi (Livy, lib. XXXVIII. C. 41. 6), Trausiani at Nic. Damascenes, had their dwellings in the central regions of the
Rhodope mountains (Despoto-dag), where according to legends Orpheus had spent
some time.
Around 26ad, as Tacitus writes (Annal. lib. IV. 46-50),
the Romans fought a fierce war with the ferocious populations of the high
mountains of Thrace, where they defended themselves in a large number of forts,
built on peaks of steep rocky outcrops.
Two leaders of this
mountainous population, energetic and independent, had Tursenic names, Turesis and Tarsa.
On the shores of
the Black Sea, between Tomis and Dionysopolis, there was on top of a promontory
a strong fort called Tirizis, Tirisa with Ravennas (var. Trissa
and Turisia). In Hecateus’ geography
the Trizii figure as a people from
the southern parts of the Istru (Steph.
Byz. see Trisoi).
In Macedonia
existed the city Tirsae, named after
Tirse, a Macedonian woman, as says
the grammarian Stephanos Byzanthinos.
In Attica, in Argos
and in Lemnos, we also find remains of an ancient Pelasgian population which
belonged to the family of the Tursenii (Thuycydidis,
lib. IV. 109; Dionysius Hal. lib. I.
25).
Homer mentions the Tursenii whose occupation was
piracy on the Black Sea (Hymn. VI. 8).
Finally, the
Tursenii of the eastern regions of the Mediterranean are also mentioned on an
Egyptian inscription from the 14th century bc, under the name Tursa and Turisa (Rouge, Les
attaques dirigees contre l’Egypte, XIV, p. 25).
We spoke so far
about the Tursenic migrations to Italy, and the remains of this population in
the Balkan peninsula and in the islands of the Aegean Sea.
But a considerable
stratum made of an ancient Tursenic population had also existed in the northern
parts of the lower Danube and the Black Sea.
In this region,
famous in prehistoric times, the most important and more civilized group was
formed by the so-called Agathyrsii from
near the river Maris (Mures) in Transilvania, called Trausi by Stephanos
Byzanthinos, and Agathyrsi by
the Greek authors.
To this family,
once very numerous, of the Trausii or Agathyrsii from the Carpathians, seems to
have belonged also the Trausii of the Rhodope mountains, called by Hesychius ednos Schithichon. The
Dacic race, writes Dio Cassius (I.
51. 22) had once settled colonies in the Rhodope mountains.
The Agathyrsii and
the Etruscii appear in fact, in many regards, to have been two peoples which
once had the same common civilization.
In Roman times, the
Etruscii or Tursenii from Italy were considered as the most perfect masters of
military architecture. Their dwellings were in the shape of towers, tyrsis
= turris (Dionysius Halic. lib. I.
26).
The Agathyrsii from
the Carpathians also appear as founders of forts.
The ancient fort
from Talmaciu (Landscron), situated facing the pass at Turnul Rosu, had once
been, as a folk tradition tells us (Muller,
Siebenb. Sagen, p. 8), in the possession of a giant with the name Toresan = Tursan (Turs as family
name appears in the neighboring district of Salisce).
An ancient city of
Dacia, situated in the southern parts of Transilvania, is called by Ptolemy Tiriscum (Tilisca near
Salisce, or maybe the Citadel from Muncel?).
A number of
prehistoric forts or citadels from Transilvania and Hungary had during the
Middle Ages, and some ruins still have to this day, Tursenic names.
Turch (=Turci), Theurch, Torcsvar, Turtzburg (the
fortress Torcs), is in the historical documents of Hungary and Transilvania the
ancient name of the castle which closed the pass of Bran in the south-east
parts of Transilvania. In the Eugubine tables, Tursce = Turce is the form of the Dative of Turscos = Tuscus (Huschke, Die Iguv. Taf. VII. a. 12. p.
267).
Turuskon castrum, Toroczkovar and Troskovar (the citadel of
Trusc, Trascau) is the historic name of an ancient castle in the mountains of
Aries river, in the western parts of Transilvania.
In the Eugubine
tables, the form Turskum corresponds
to Tuscum (Huschke, Die Iguv. Taf.
Another ancient
castle with the name Thursch (Turucz
and Turocz) was in the western Carpathians of Hungary, and formed the principal
fortress for the defense of Thurocz county.
Finally, Turschan lapis (the stone, or fortress
of Tursan) was around 1263ad the name of a mountain from the northern
Carpathians of Hungary (Wenzel,
Codex dipl. Arpad. Cont. III. 41).
The Agathyrsii knew
metallurgy, and were renowned for their fine, beautiful costumes, embroidered
with flowers. According to what Herodotus
writes, they were very elegant and wore mostly gold ornaments, chrisophoroi
(lib. IV. 104; Avienus, Orb. Descr.
v. 447). This is an evident proof of the level of civilization of this nation.
In the same way,
the ancient Etruscii or Tursenii of Italy were a sort of people who loved fast
and magnificence, as Dionysius of
Halikarnassus writes (lib. IX.16).
The Etruscii, who
in older times wore long tresses, also had in use the gold wreaths, as civil
and military reward (Pliny, lib.
XXI. 4. 1; XXXIII. 4. 4; XXXVI. 19. 7; Juvenalis,
Sat. V. 164); and the noble Etruscan youths wore around the neck gold ornaments
(Hetruscum aurum).
Isidorus of Seville writes that the Greeks and the
Etruscii had been the first to write on waxed tablets (Orig. VI. 9. 1). We find
that the waxed tablets as writing material were also used, in the time of Roman
domination, at the gold mines of
The type of Hermes
figures often on the ancient coins of the Tursenii of Italy (Armis of Dacia,
Armes of Scythia), as well as his attributes: the tortoise, the caduceus, the
miraculous horse of mythical Pelasgian times, the wild ox and boar. The
national music of the Etruscii was pastoral. It was played on the flute, and
the Etruscan youths jumped graciously, accompanied by shouting in verses,
exactly as it is the custom with the Romanian people from the Carpathians, even
today.
These dancers, who
had earned a great renown in
We find until today
in Transilvania and the neighboring regions of the Carpathians, a large number
of family names, which indicates that a population of the same Tursenic family
had once existed in these parts. Of these we note here the following:
In Transilvania and
In the rest of
In the historical
documents of Transilvania and
[1. We note here the following
localities with Tursenic names: Tarseni
(Muscel, Mehedinti); Tarsesci
(Arges); Tarsu (Roman); Tresesci or Trisesci (Banat); Trusculesci
(Valcea); Truseni (Basarabia);
Grindul Tursanului (Romanati); Tuscia (Hateg); Tuscuresci (Braila); Turtu
(Ugocea); Turzinesca (Gorj); Selimbru (Sibiu); Salembrum (Etruria); Selymbira
(Thrace); Tarquinii, Tarcynia,
Tarconia (Etruria); in prehistoric times Tarcynaei,
Hyperborean people (Steph. Byz.); The place of the ancient city
Especially in Tera
Fagarasului (TN – the Country of Fagaras) and in the former Duchy of Amlas, a
large number of Tursenic family names still exist today, like the following:
The word lariu (lar) from the ancient Tursenic
idiom), with the meaning “shepherd master” (TN – pacurariu), has been preserved
in the religious carols of the Romanians of Transilvania, as the word lar also had the same meaning in the
ancient cult of the Etrusco – Roman region (Carols from the villages Ciubanca –
Dobaca and Bora – Ialomita).
The Larii, as tutelary gods of the villages,
cities and fields, were venerated in woods. The Brothers Arvali sacrificed two
rams to the Larii, and two ewes to the Mother of the Larii (Henzen, Acta fr. Arv. p. 145). The
symbol of the Larii was a dog in front of the feet.
The word lar was at the same time a honorific
title for the Etruscii, for example, Lar Porsena, Lar Tolumnius, Lar Herminius.
Another numerous
population from the Tursenic family, was formed by the so-called Thyrsagetae (Val. Flaccus, Argon. VI. 134). Their dwellings were near the river
Tanais, in the neighborhood of the Budinii and the Gelonii. Their national
weapon was the lance (hasta), and they had as musical instruments the flute
(tibia) and the tympani.
Finally, we also
note here that the wise king of the Scythians from the north of Istru, against
whom Darius, the king of the Persians had come with war, is called Idanthyrsus by Herodotus, meaning the Tursan
from the mountains (lib. IV. 76 – ‘ida, wooded mountain).
Symbolic Etruscan painting,
discovered in the sepulchral rooms from
[2. This symbol is dual though: it
represents not only the soul of the deceased, but also the image of Hermes, the lord and guide of the souls
to the other world, figured as a riding messenger. The same symbol also appears
on some funerary monuments in
Etruscan painting from the
underground necropolis of