The Ethnicity of the Sea Peoples - RePub - Erasmus Universiteit ...

“Venel Atelinas has given this to the sons of Tin”. 344
It is therefore no contradiction that the inscription of the
Dioskouroi is Greek inspired, whereas the altars of the
sanctuary are of Etruscan type. 345 On the contrary, this
threefold identification facilitates us to further explain the
popularity of the Aeneas’ saga in southern Etruria.
In our summary of Vergilius’ Aeneid, we have seen
that as a corollary to the peace between the Trojan colonists
and the native Latins, there will, with the exception of
some new religious rites, be no change of the name of the
inhabitants of Latium, nor in their language, customs, and
dress. Evidently, the Trojan colonists, in contrast to their
Lydian colleagues in Etruria, were not numerous enough to
cause a language shift: at any rate the epigraphical evidence
shows decisively that the current language remained
Latin, not to say that there is not a trace of the language of
the Trojan colonists left. What could it have been? To answer
this question, it is interesting to note that the name
“Trojans” is used to indicate a motley crowd from various
regions. Most explicit is the distinction of Lycians, whose
ships are stipulated to be under the command of Orontes.
346 But there are also names of Lydian (Atys, Gyges,
Palmus) 347 and Thracian (Ismarus [of a Maeonian =
Lydian], Tereus, Thamyrus) 348 type. Both latter elements
may be expected in the Troad, as the region was overrun
by Thraco-Phrygians from the Balkans at the end of the
Bronze Age349 and under the control of the Lydians at the
time of Gyges. 350 The only hard evidence comes from another
direction: Elymian. In this language, once spoken by
344 Rix 1991: Ta 3.2 (= TLE 156); note in this connection that according
to Myrsilos of Lesbos (3rd century BC) F 8 the Kabeiroi
of Samothrace are considered Tyrrhenian gods, see Lochner-
Hüttenbach 1960: 102.
345 Alföldi 1963: 266; Pl. XVI; cf. Woudhuizen 1992a: 194, note
104.
346 Vergilius, Aeneid, I, 113; VI, 334; cf. X, 751; XII, 516.
347 Vergilius, Aeneid V, 568; IX, 762; X, 697, 699; cf. Gusmani
1964, s.v. (note that †q = p).
348 Vergilius, Aeneid X, 139; XI, 675; XII, 341; cf. Detschew
1976, s.v.
349 For the Balkan affinities of the Trojan “Buckel” ceramic (=
Troy VIIb2), see Rutter 1975.
350 Strabo, Geography XIII, 22, 1; cf. Pedley 1972: 19 (Milesians
asking for permission from Gyges to colonize Abydos on the Hellespont);
note also with Briquel 1991: 83 that Daskyleion in the
Troad is called after the father of Gyges, Daskylos.
92
the, according to literary tradition, related population of
Eryx and Segesta in northwest Sicily, some inscriptions
have been found, among which coin legends. One of these
coin legends consists of a bilingual, according to which
Elymian Erukaziie corresponds to Greek Erukinn “of the
Erycinians”; the other, Segestazie, shows exactly the same
formation, but then for the town Segesta. 351 Now, these
Elymian legends are characterized by the Lycian ethnic
formation in -z(i)- (Sppartazi “Spartans”; Atãnazi “Athenians”)
and likewise Lycian ending of the genitive plural -e1 (Pttaraze1 “of the Patarians”) 352 – a combination which is
also attested for Etruscan Karazie “of the Carthaginians”.
353 Apparently, therefore, the language of these particular
Trojans, and hence probably of followers of Aeneas
related to them as well, was closely related to Lycian, i.e.
of Luwian type. This inference coincides with the fact that
the place name Roma is based on the same root as that of
the Lycian heroic name Romos, being likewise derived
from the Luwian name for the stag-god, Rum/nt-. 354
To conclude, the main contribution of the Trojan
colonists is the introduction of the cult of their ancestral
gods, the Penates. Furthermore, there may be a grain of
thruth in the tradition that leading families of Rome traced
their origin back to a Trojan follower of Aeneas, like the
Atii from Atys, 355 Sergii from Sergestus356 – a Phrygian
or Lydian name357 – , and the Cluentii from Cloanthus, 358
though the identification of Aeneas’ son Ascanius with Iulus,
the ancestor of the Iulii, seems, on the basis of the
double naming, a little bit forced. 359
351 Lejeune 1969.
352 Kinch 1888: 193-4; cf. Melchert 1993, s.v.
353 Rix 1991: Carthago Af 3.1 (= TLE 724); Woudhuizen 1992b:
83; 90; 95.
354 Herbig 1914: 28; Houwink ten Cate 1961: 128-31.
355 Vergilius, Aeneid V, 568-9; cf. Briquel 1991: 471-6.
356 Vergilius, Aeneid V, 121.
357 Beekes 2002: 214, with reference to Phrygian Surgastoy, see
Brixhe & Lejeune 1984: Dd-102, and Lydian Srkstu-, see Gusmani
1964, s.v. For the related Thracian Sergesteus, see Detschew 1976,
s.v.
358 Vergilius, Aeneid V, 122-3.
359 Vergilius, Aeneid I, 267, etc.