10 Jun 2011

The house of Armna


In inscription ET Vs 1.133 I notice the last name of an individual written out as Armnes. I can't be terribly certain from only three names in this rather brief inscription but it seems at first blush to me that vel : armnes : vipes : should be read with a directive case form of Armna rather than with a genitive of Armne. In this way it reads in English: "Vel (son) to Armna, of the (gens) Vipe." We find the use of the directive case in -is signifying 'to, towards' in order to specify descent in TLE 321 as well. The name Vipe, by the way, was known to Latin-speaking Romans as Vibius.

I then wonder. Does Armna bear relation to the gloss *arim 'monkey', identified by Strabo as a Tyrrhenian word? Is this name a later form of *Arimna '(He) of the monkey'? Great Tinia only knows, stranger names had existed in the Etrusco-Roman record. Further, when I think of monkeys, my thoughts are drawn to Carthage from whence such exotic imports would sail to Etruria.

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