Caeré
(always called by the Greek writers
Ἄγυλλα). One of the
most considerable cities of Etruria, and universally acknowledged to have been founded by the
Tyrrhenian Pelasgi (
Dion. Hal. i. 20;
iii.
60). It was situated near the coast, to the west of Veii. Ancient writers seem puzzled
to account for the change of name which this city is allowed to have undergone, the Romans
never calling it anything but Caeré, except Vergil (
Aen. viii. 478). Strabo relates that the Tyrrheni, on arriving before
this city, were hailed by the Pelasgi from the walls with the word
Χαῖρε, according to the Greek mode of salutation; and that, when they had made
themselves masters of the place, they changed its name to that form of greeting. Other
variations of this story may be seen in Servius (
ad Aen. viii. 597).
According to one of them, given on the authority of Hyginus, the Romans, and not the Lydians,
changed its name from Agylla to Caeré. All these explanations, however, are
unsatisfactory. It has been supposed that Caeré might be the original name, or
perhaps that which the Siculi, the ancient possessors, gave to the place before the Pelasgic
invasion. According to Müller (
Die Etrusker, vol. i. p. 87), the two
names for the place point to two different stems or races of inhabitants. This same writer
makes the genuine Etrurian name to have been Cisra.
The earliest record to be found of the history of Agylla is in Herodotus (i. 167). That
writer informs us that the Phocaeans, having been driven from their native city on the shores
of Ionia by the arms of Cyrus, formed establishments in Corsica, of which the Tyrrhenians and
Carthaginians, jealous of their nautical skill and enterprising spirit, sought to dispossess
them. A severe action accordingly took place in the Sea of Sardinia, between the Phocaeans and
the combined fleet of the latter powers, in which the former gained the day; but it was such a
victory as left them little room for exultation, they having lost several of their ships, and
the rest being nearly all disabled. The Agylleans, who appear to have constituted the
principal force of the Tyrrhenians, on their return home landed their prisoners and stoned
them to death; for which act of cruelty they were soon visited by a strange calamity. It was
observed that all the living creatures which approached the spot where the Phocaeans had been
murdered were immediately seized with convulsive distortions and paralytic affections of the
limbs. On consulting the oracle at Delphi, to learn how they might expiate their offence, the
Agylleans were commanded to celebrate the obsequies of the dead and to hold games in their
honour; which order, the historian informs us, was punctually attended to up to his time. We
learn also from Strabo that the Agylleans always abstained from piracy, to which the other
Tyrrhenian cities were much addicted. According to Dionysius, the Romans were first engaged in
hostilities with Caeré under the reign of Tarquin the Elder, and subsequently under
Servius Tullius, by whom a treaty was concluded between the two States (iii. 28). Long after,
when Rome had been taken by the Gauls, the inhabitants of Caeré rendered the former
city an important service by receiving their priests and Vestals, and defeating the Gauls on
their return through the Sabine territory; on which occasion they recovered the gold with
which Rome is said to have purchased its liberation. This is a curious fact, and not mentioned
by any historian; but it agrees very well with the account which Polybius gives us of the
retreat of the Gauls (i. 6). In return for this assistance, the Romans requited the Caerites
by declaring them the public guests of Rome, and admitting them, though not in full, to the
rights enjoyed by her citizens. They were made citizens, but without the right of voting;
whence the phrases,
in Caeritum tabulas referre aliquem, “to deprive
one of his right of voting,” and
Caerite cera digni,
“worthless persons,” in reference to citizens of Rome, since what would be
an honour to the people of Caeré would be a punishment to a native Roman citizen.
See Hor.
Epist. i. 6, 62, with the commentators.
