In Old Bones, Perilla, Corvinus wife and stepdaughter of the late Ovid (P. Ovidius Naso), conscientious tourist that she is, has her nose in Aulus Caecina's Etruscan History – until same is eaten by the mule Corydon.
Aulus Caecina came from a distinguished family in Volaterrae, now Cecina. He had some repute as an orator.Trained by his father, he was an authority on Etruscan divination, Etrusca Disciplina, and Cicero, an intimate, was surely influenced by him when he wrote his De divinatione. Fragments of Caecina's work can be found in Seneca's Quaestiones Naturales, ii. 31-49 (dealing with lightning). Caecina's "Etruscan History" may be an embellishment by the author of Old Bones. However, Michael Grant, in Roman Myths, calls Caecina 'an intermediary in the transmission of Etruscan lore to the Romans.'
Caecina supported the wrong side in the Civil War and published a tirade against Caesar, who banished him after Pharsalus. After Caecina recanted by writing a pamphlet, Querelae, his friends obtained a pardon for him. Cicero defended Caecina's father in a trial in 69 B.C., The Oration of M. T. Cicero in Behalf of Aulus Caecina. Some of the correspondence between Caecina and Cicero is preserved in Cicero's Ad Fam. (46 and 45 B.C.)
CDLXXXVI (F VI, 6) to Aulus Caecina (in Exile)
DXXV (F VI, 8) Cicero to Aulus Caecina (in Sicily)
DXXXI (F VI, 7) Aulus Caecina to Cicero (at Rome)
DXXXII (F VI, 5) Cicero to Aulus Caecina (In Sicily)
Cicero also wrote letters of recommendation for the exiled Caecina:
DIV (F XIII, 66) To P. Servilius Vatia Isauricus (in Asia)
DXXVI (F VI, 9) Cicero to T. Furfanius (Proconsul in Sicily).<
Etruscan Religion
The Art Of Haruspicy Which Is The Etruscan Discipline
by John Opsopaus (Biblioteca Arcana)
Etrusca Disciplina, the Etruscan books of cult and divination were collected and burned in the 5th century A.D.
