The First Italian Ethnonyms: Identity, Language, and Mobility in Pre-Roman Italy (15 min)

Presenters

Claudia Paparella, University of Toronto

Abstract

This paper discusses a small but significant group of inscriptions representing the earliest instances of ethnonyms from Italy, from the seventh to fourth centuries B.C.E. Drawing from a larger study of writing practices in pre-Roman Italy, I present the most comprehensive database to date of inscriptions with ethnic markers. These texts, including older and newer epigraphic discoveries, have been discussed separately but never considered as a whole. By synthesizing this material, this paper allows us to consider the contexts in which early Italians chose to identify themselves according to larger group units. The synthesis reveals two important features, which shed new light on mobility and identity in this early period. First, all examples show ethnonyms used outside individuals’ places of origin. That is, Italians found it expedient to identify themselves with wider groups when they were confronted with perceived differences. In this respect, I argue that mobility triggered the conceptualization of relational identities through writing. This epigraphic material thus broadly supports recent claims of high connectivity in early Italy. The second feature helps to nuance those same claims: We commonly find that the languages chosen for ethnic markers align not with the individuals commissioning them but with local language preferences. That is, an individual in Etruria expresses their Faliscan or Greek identity in the local Etruscan language. The implication seems to be a sufficient familiarity with local (but not necessarily primary) languages to use or even create novel ethnic markers. This fluidity between ethnicity and language problematizes a traditional but still common move in the literature to identify early Italian ethnic boundaries as coterminous with language boundaries. Instead, we find a complex world of situational ethnicity, multilingualism, and high connectivity; perhaps it is time to rethink the wider relationship between language and group formation in Italy in this early period.

  AIA-2B