The “ Spada DI Verona ”

Introduction

The Maniscalchi -Erizzo Museum in Verona (Veneto, IT) hosts an interesting collection of Roman, Venetic and Rhaetic antiquities. In the Museum, a first storecase (Fig. 1, left portion) hosts Roman and Venetic little bronze figures. The second storecase (Fig. 1, right portion) hosts Venetic little bronze figures, a situla, a metallic belt and a copy of the so called "Spada di Verona" or Sword of Verona (Fig. 2). The small white board near the copy of the Sword (Fig. 2) in Italian recites: Spit of bronze from Ca' dei Cavri (VR) Engraved inscription of the Rhaetic oriental group. V th century BC.

History and previous spelling of the inscription on the sword

The inscription on the Sword is classified as N. 38 by Pauli (1), see Annex A, who reports the following spelling: ϕaniniuϕikuremieshiiśϕasuvakhikvepisines, and also the spelling of Mommsen and Fabretti: δaninioδikoremieshiiśδasovakhikvepisones, but provides no interpretation of the inscription.

The history of the Sword of Verona is reported by Wathmough (2), see Annex B. Summarizing, Wathmough (2) classifies the inscription as PID 247, mentions that it is impossible now to arrive at certainty of the text of the inscription engraved on the strip of metal 1m. long which is generally described as 'Spada di Verona', because the original sword or spit has long been lost and all the existing copies descend from the drawing of one Lodovico Moscardo its discoverer. Wathmough (2) provides the following spelling: ϕaniniiuϕikuremiieshiraϕasuvakhikvelisanes and provides a review of the problems linked to the interpretations of the letters in the inscription. He reports also that according to Pellegrini the inscription is redacted in the alphabet, closely resembling the Venetic, in which the Magrè inscriptions are written., but no interpretation is provided. Wathmough (2) defines the possible Celtic translation by Guillemand as arbitrary.

The use of the Magrè alphabet would indicate a Rhaetic origin of the inscription, however, the writers of the present paper share the whish set out in ref.

(2) of the rediscovery of the original sword or spit, so as to settle all the disputed points. Fig. 3 shows, among the other, the alphabet of Magrè, which will be used, according to Wathmough (2), for spelling the inscription. J. Rhys 3, cf. Annex C, in dealing with Celtic inscriptions reports the spelling of the inscription on the Sword of Verona provided by Dr. Stockes: Quaninio Quikoremies hisa quasova khik Vepisones, but admit that he had no success in treating the inscription as Celtic.

M. Bor (4) in dealing with Rhaetians and their language wrote :"…, Pallottino considers the Rhaetian language and the Etruscans as non-Europeans, whereas the Veneti were in his opinion Indo-Europeans and linguistically close to the Italic group. As is well known, my views about the Venetic language are different, and also I disagree about the Rhaetians and their language". M. Bor used the similarities between the Rhaetian, Slovenian, old and modern Slavic languages, for translating Rhaethian inscriptions (cf. (4), pages 397-408).

The inscription

The drawing of the inscription Pauli N. 38 on Table II of (1) -cf. fig. 4 -will be assumed as basis for translating the inscription. The inscription appears to be written from right to left in continuo and no indication is provided in it for indicating a possible separations between the words. A possible method of separating the words in the inscription is to directly recognize similar or corresponding Slavic language elements, like: conjunctions, prepositions, pronouns, negations, names and verbs. However, in applying this method, taking also into account possible changes due to the evolution of the words from the time of the inscription to today and possible imprecisions in the letters composing the words, two alternative word separations and consequent two alternative interpretations of the inscription emerged.

Alternative A (by G. Tomezzoli)

Reading the inscription from right to left by using the Magrè alphabet (ref. 1, fig. 3) it is possible to arrive to the following spelling: f fa an ni in ni iu uf fi ik ku ur re em mi ie es sh hi ii ii it ti if fa as su uv va ak kh hi ik kv ve el li is su un ne es s Translation: War and mutilation are to the Romans and the fury is to their god Bacchus, Velis is with us.

Comment:

The inscription is a slogan evidentiating the bad behavioural aptitudes of the Romans, i.e. their aptitude to make war and mutilation, and of their god Bacchus, i.e. his fury, and in opposition affirming the confidence of the writer of the inscription in the Slavic god Velis, the god of animals, the meat of which were roasted on the spit.

Alternative B (by V. Chudeenov)

Reading the inscription from right to left by using the Magrè alphabet (ref. 1, fig. 3) it is possible to arrive to the following spelling: r ra an ni in ni iu uf fi ik ku ur re em ml le es sh hi ii ip pi iv va au uv va ak kh hi ik kv ve el li is su un ne es s. .