Note 23 — Chapter I · THE POPULUS AND ITS EARLIEST POLITICAL DIVISIONS

Mantua, till late an Etruscan city, had three tribes; Serv. in Aen. x. 202. In this connection it is significant that Volnius, an Etruscan poet, declared the primitive tribal names to be Etruscan; Varro, L. L. v. 55. The information suggests the possibility that some Etruscan cities had these same tribes; cf. Fest. 285. 25; CIL. ix. 4204 (locality unknown). In fact these names can be ultimately traced to Etruscan gentilicia; Schulze, Lat. Eigennam. 218, 581. The triplet champions of Alba point to a division of this community into three tribes; Niebuhr, Röm. Gesch. i. 386; Schwegler, Röm. Gesch. i. 502. The story that T. Tatius was killed at Lavinium indicates the existence of a tomb of the hero in that place—a clear sign of a tribe of Tities there; Livy i. 14. 2; Dion. Hal. ii. 52; cf. Varro, L. L. v. 152. A trace of Ramnes is found at Ardea; Serv. in Aen. ix. 358. There were Ramnennii in Ostia (CIL. xiv. 1542) and Ramnii in Capua; ibid. x. 3772; Schulze, Lat. Eigennam. 218. The existence of a tribe of Luceres in Ardea is vouched for by Lucerus, its eponymous hero, king of that city; Fest. ep. 119; Pais, Storia di Roma, I. i. 279. The word in various forms occurs in certain Etruscan towns; Schulze, ibid. 182. These facts make it probable that some at least of the Latin as well as Etruscan cities had the same three tribes.