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Submitted for award of PhD September 2006. - King's College London

Submitted for award of PhD September 2006. - King's College London

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The meaning <strong>of</strong> the word iüvilas is disputed. A commonly accepted view is that the<br />

term is etymologically related to Jupiter. Both words derive from the common Indo-<br />

European stem dien-. The <strong>for</strong>m diüvila appears in the terracotta inscriptions, thought<br />

to be older; the word iüvila is used in the later texts on tufa. h vilas inscriptions were<br />

set up <strong>for</strong> one person or several members <strong>of</strong> the same gens, and in one case a iirvila<br />

was put up <strong>for</strong> Jupiter Flagius 431 Inscriptions occasionally refer to their location: by<br />

the gates, in the (sacred) grove, in the vicinity, which suggests that the izivilas was a<br />

separate object and not the inscription itself. 432 Bücheler believed that they were `res<br />

ad lovem pertinentes', while Altheim went further in suggesting that they were<br />

images <strong>of</strong> Jupiter on stelae, like those <strong>of</strong> Zeus Meilichios at the sanctuary <strong>of</strong><br />

Selinunte. 433 Heurgon argued that they were votive statues and Pisani thought that<br />

they were altars 434 Franchi de Bellis considered them to have been little columns or<br />

stelae. 435<br />

The inscriptions on terracotta <strong>for</strong>m a coherent group. The texts were <strong>of</strong>ten<br />

inscribed on both sides <strong>of</strong> the stelae, and on all the inscriptions which survive<br />

complete figures appear next to the texts: a head <strong>of</strong> female divinity, one or more<br />

cakes and a boar. One <strong>of</strong> the terracotta inscriptions mentions a magistrate, ST Cp 24;<br />

I will return to the others in section 3.4. on the elite families <strong>of</strong> Capua, with the one<br />

tufa inscription, ST Cp 26, which does not mention a magistrate.<br />

The following ten iüvilas inscriptions, all but one tufa, mention magistrates <strong>of</strong><br />

Capua: ST Cp 24,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34, and 35. Their content follows the<br />

431<br />

ST Cp 25.<br />

432<br />

ST Cp 24 and 35.<br />

433<br />

Bücheler (1874) 609 and Altheim (1931) 64.<br />

434<br />

Heurgon (1942a) 47-53 and Pisani (1953) 74.<br />

119

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