Women’s roles at Vulci: The hatrencu at the time of Rome’s expansion in Etruria

This article investigates women’s roles at Vulci by focusing on the epitaphs of the so-called Tomb of the Inscriptions, used by a restricted number of Vulcian elite families in the Hellenistic period. After offering a historical overview of the relations between the Etruscan cities and Rome in the 4th-3rd centuries BCE, it argues that the disposition of the women in the tomb’s chambers depended non so much on family ties as on the sharing of the title hatrencu—which is only attested at Vulci. It also contends that the women labeled as hatrencu were primarily religious officials in charge of a traditional city cult. Finally, it points to the endogamous practices reflected by the tomb’s burials as a reaction of the Vulcian elite to Rome’s political and military expansion in Etruria.