Colloredo Mels, Pierluigi Romeo Etrusca disciplina. L'indissolubile rapporto tra Etruria e Roma

Contrary to a commonplace still widespread today, the Etruscans did not disappear with the Roman conquest, but emperors such as Augustus and Claudius promoted the rebirth and study of Etruscan discipline, the art of interpreting the future and the will of the gods, according to what was revealed to man through the divine child Tagetes and the lasa Vegoia.

In the course of Roman history, from the Republic to the late Empire, the Senate resorted to the college of LX Haruspices, composed of members of the most ancient Etruscans, for the interpretation of the divine will and the defence of Rome's salvation in peace and war. Even after the conversion of the empire and the prohibition of pagan cults by Theodosius, the Etruscan discipline remained the last bastion of traditional cults against rampant Christianity. This work uses the texts of ancient authors and recent archaeological discoveries to analyse the role the Etruscan haruspices played in the Roman world, how they divided and read the heavenly vault (templum), how they interpreted omens and how, according to Pliny and Zosimus, they were able to summon lightning and use it as a weapon against Rome's enemies, as happened with Alaric. The appendix contains the essay "Auspicia ex avibus" by Emanuele Viotti and the brontoscopic calendars by N. Figulo and Fonteio, taken from the "Libri Tagetici", rare traditions of Etruscan sacred texts, and the "Elogia Tarquiniensia".