Teśne rasne. Studi intorno ad una possibile ricognizione del diritto etrusco.

The following work is the result of three years of research for my Ph.D. at the University of Trento, Faculty of Law. The aim of my research is to give an account of the Etruscan legal system by analysing both direct and indirect sources. For this, I have attempted to use historical, linguistic, and epigraphical methods and instruments, combining them to offer the most complete view of one of the most influential cultures in the Italian peninsula before the rise of Rome. The first chapter is an account of the historical evolution of the Etruscan ethnos from the Bronze age to the end of the I century b.C., focusing mainly on the socioeconomic drives that informed public affairs and the complex exchequer of international events. This part is based on indirect sources, such as literary ones. The second chapter is an attempt to offer a short linguistic vademecum, focused mainly on Etruscan alphabet and morphology, with some remarks regarding the origins of Etruscan language and alphabet. The third chapter is the analysis of the direct sources, mostly epigraphic ones. I have chosen the most relevant legal epigraphs that have yet been discovered and have proceeded to study them, attempting (where possible) some parallels with roman law. After the general conclusions, I deemed it appropriate to add two appendixes concerning Etruscan amgistratures and a short legal lexicon. The work is closed by some hand-drawn maps and the most important epigraphs.