PRIESTS AND PRIESTESSES
The title Camillus (a priest’s assistant, Dionysius of Halicarnassus Antiquitates Romanae [Roman Antiquities] 2.22.2-3), was believed to have been adopted into Latin from Etruscan (Bonfante & Bonfante 2002: 186).
The terms cepen and maru, likewise attested in Italic cults, also designated priestly offices, their nuances somewhat obscure (van der Meer 2007: 114-15; cf. the name of Publius Virgilius “Maro”: the poet’s name derives from the Etruscan term). Other words, such as cletra (a ritual vessel) and the names of the gods Nethuns and Selvans (Neptune, Silvanus?), were borrowed from the Italic languages, and attest to close interactions at least as early as the Iron Age (Bonfante & Bonfante 2002: 186-91; van der Meer 2007). The adoption of Saturnus into Latin, in contrast, marks a borrowing from Etruscan (Bonfante & Bonfante 2002: 204).Epitaphs identify priests with multiple skills, such as Larth Cafates of first- century Pesaro (Umbria) whose Latin and Etruscan epitaph calls him both haruspex and fulguriator (Etruscan netsvis trvtnvt frontac), practising both extispicy and lightning/thunder divination (Bonfante & Bonfante 2002: 69; ETUm 1.7). Some offices were passed down within certain families (Haack 2005, 2006). Lars Pulenas held office (Jucairce) in the cults of Catha, Pacha (Bacchus) and Cuksu, and participated in other ceremonies, including the ancestor cult (ET Ta 1.17; Bonfante & Bonfante 2002: 149-51). His genealogy indicates one vector by which foreign cults were introduced into Italy, for Lars’ great-grandfather, Laris Pule, is styled Creice - “the Greek”, possibly related to the seer Polles (Briquel 2002; Bonfante & Bonfante 2002: 150; Heurgon 1964: 236). At Vulci the Tomba delle Iscrizioni (fourth-first c. BCE) may hold evidence of a priestly college of women, under the term hatrencu (see Lundeen 2006).