ETRUSCANS, THE. The problem of the origin and con nection of the Etruscans has assumed a wholly new aspect owing to the progress of archaeological research. The expectation that the key to the language would some day be found has been dis appointed, and it has become evident that the limited character and style of the inscriptions forbids any hope that they will ever yield historical information of any value. On the other hand the steady progress of archaeological exploration and comparative study has revealed the chronological sequence of the various sites and their relative antiquity, so that it is now possible to say when and where the Etruscans first appeared upon Italian soil and by what stages their power was extended. Several periods of an tiquity are now distinguished in the complex whole long termed indiscriminately "Etruscan art." It is also possible to show the point of cleavage between the work of the indigenous Italians and that of their foreign overlords. Etruscan life has been studied in all its varied phases from the 8th century B.C. to the 1st, and the capital problem of origins has been approximately solved.
Literary Evidence.—Literary evidence in ancient writers is extraordinarily slight in amount and inferior in quality. The Etruscans produced no native historian. True, the emperor Clau dius composed a so-called history in some 20 books, but it is unlikely that posterity has suffered any loss from the disappear ance of this voluminous and, no doubt, curious work. In the sphere of ritual and religion Claudius may have gathered together a quantity of curious matter from the lost "Acherontian books" of the priests, and this would have had no little antiquarian in terest, especially for students of folk-lore and ceremony. But as regards history in its proper sense it is highly probable that Claudius never possessed the material, even if he had been gifted with the ability to write anything that would meet modern re quirements. Similarly, the great authors of the Augustan period are almost worthless for this purpose. Virgil is frankly and hon estly writing a romance; his Mezentius of Caere, if not a com plete invention, is at best the romantic embellishment of a figure of doubtful authenticity. Livy is the historian of Roman victories, the Etruscans are of no value or interest to him except as can non-fodder. For the chronicle of the wars with Veil he may be fairly trustworthy and probably possessed a certain amount of real information, but he could know little of the brilliant periods of Etruscan pride and supremacy in the 6th and 7th centuries B.C. References to the Etruscans are found in a number of other classical writers, from the serious historian, Polybius, an ex cellent authority for the late period with which he deals, down to poets of the decadence like Statius and Silius Italicus. But apart from the military and political events recorded by Polybius and Livy all the statements of classical authors put together con vey hardly any information. In regard to the question of Etrus can origins every poet and every prose writer except Dionysius of Halicarnassus accepts as a matter of course the story of their migration from Lydia as given by Herodotus, who tells how in the reign of Atys, son of Manes, there was great scarcity of food in all Lydia which lasted 18 years. "At last their king divided the people into two portions and made them draw lots so that the one part should remain and the other leave the country; he himself was to be the head of those who drew the lot to remain there, and his son, whose name was Tyrrhenus, of those who de parted. Then one part of them, having drawn the lot, left the country, and came down to Smyrna and built ships, whereon they set all their goods that could be carried on shipboard and sailed away to seek a livelihood and a country ; till at last, after so journing with many nations in turn, they came to the Ombrici, where they founded cities and have dwelt ever since. They no longer called themselves Lydians but Tyrrhenians, after the name of the king's son who had led them thither." (Loeb, trans. I., p. 125.) But the apparent unanimity of all the Greek and Latin writers is of no value as evidence, because all are drawing on a single source. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who composed his Roman Archaeology in the time of Augustus, was at least as much interested in destroying the credit of his predecessors as in ascertaining the truth. He unearthed a 5th century Lydian au thor, one Xanthus, who might be set up as a rival to Herodotus, not in the original but only in the 3rd century recliaufe, which one ancient critic at least judged to be a forgery. This document, Dionysius informs us, makes no mention of the emigration of Lydians under Tyrrhenus, and therefore he argues that the story told by Herodotus must be an invention. But it is obvious that there might be a score of reasons for the omission, even if the history of Xanthus were complete, so that the argument can not be taken very seriously.
Dionysius states that the Etruscans were original, autoch thonous, inhabitants of Italy. Here he is more deserving of at tention; the theory is by no means impossible and has been re vived by good modern archaeologists. But the insuperable diffi culty is the language. Had the Etruscans been really indigenous, they would surely have spoken a language related in some degree to one or other of the dialects which were still being used in the days of Augustus by the descendants of the really native Italians, that is to say, of the peoples of the Stone and Bronze ages. And yet, as Dionysius himself says, their language was something entirely unique and peculiar; a statement fully endorsed by mod ern philologists. Dionysius' theory may contain a slight amount of truth. For the conclusion to which archaeologists are now be ginning to rally is that whereas the Etruscans themselves were immigrants, a very small ruling hierarchy, the backbone of their power was in the native races which they subdued : their citizens, agriculturists, workmen, soldiers, artisans were almost all Italians.
Archaeological Evidence.—As to the place from which these foreign overlords came and the route by which they entered the country there has been a complete revolution of opinion. Niebuhr thought he had discovered traces of the Etruscan language still lingering in the common speech of some of the peoples in the Eastern Alps. From this he jumped to the conclusion that these were survivals from the beginning of the Iron age, and that the inhabitants of the Rhaetian Alps were descendants of an invading army which must be identified with an army of the first conquer ing Etruscans. This argument ignores the well known existence of quite late Etruscan colonies north of the Po, and Livy's state ment that a certain number of Etruscans took refuge in the Alps from the invading Gauls of the 4th century and went wild in their savage surroundings; which would be a perfectly good ex planation of any such phenomena as Niebuhr has noted. Archae ology has shown that no Etruscan settlements were made on the north side of the Apennines before 500 B.C., the very date that is to say when the Tarquins were being expelled from Rome and the Etruscans had been in full possession of a great part of Italy for several centuries.
So much progress has now been made in the relative dating of the various sites that it may be said without hesitation that all the earliest settlements were on the sea coast. Vetulonia and Tarquinii are the very earliest ; Caere is almost equally ancient ; Volaterrae (Volterra), though not actually on the coast, is within easy reach of the sea, and was the capital of a region which had its ports at Luna and Populonia. The comparatively late founda tion of inland cities like Perugia (Perugia) and Arretium (Arezzo) is beyond all question. The only contradictory case that might seem to arise is that of Clusium, the modern Chiusi. But there is really nothing in Chiusi which obliges us to date it back to the first years of the conquest. On the contrary, the pre-Etruscan city of Camars, which stood there seems to have retained its native Italian character with extraordinary tenacity, and was probably not Etruscanized till the middle of the 7th century, so that even the city of Lars Porsenna is no exception to the rule that every inland Etruscan site is of later foundation ; the original settlements are all along the line of the Tuscan Maremma. Geographical reasoning therefore points clearly to an invasion, or perhaps rather a colonization, by successive bands of emigrants who landed on the most prominent points of the sea coast of Tuscany. From the character of their earlier remains the date of the first per manent settlement may be placed at the end of the 9th century.
That the Etruscans were orientals or semi-orientals is proved by the whole character of their earliest art, and by many details of their religion and worship. It is an art which shows close con tact with Mesopotamia, Syria and Cyprus on the one side and with Egypt on the other. The deities and mythological figures on Etruscan gold-work and jewellery of the 7th century are evidently the heroes and deities of Asiatic mythology. Masks of entirely Assyrian character decorate the handsome bronze cauldrons ; Assyrian monarchs at the chase are shown on silver bowls of the same period, while other bowls and ivories figure purely Egyptian scenes, and one is inscribed with the name of a Phoenician owner. Much of this work was doubtless imported, but the very fact that the trade of these centuries was ex clusively with the East is something wholly new in the history of Italy, which had never before traded with the Aegean, not even in the great days of Mycenae. And if much of the finer work was imported, a great deal was certainly produced in Italy, where the arrival of the Etruscans was signalized by the immediate rise of wholly new schools of design in metal-work and jewellery, the development of which can be traced as early as the 8th century. In the sphere of ritual and religion there are many details which are taken direct from Mesopotamia, and the whole feeling and atmosphere are purely oriental. The most striking identities are in the practices of divination and augury; for the custom of divin ing from the livers of sheep or the flight of birds is purely Chal daean (see DIVINATION). There are models of clay livers from Mesopotamia inscribed in cuneiform which precisely resemble the bronze model of a liver found at Piacenza, divided into com partments each of which is labelled in Etruscan with the name of its presiding divinity.
On the capital questions, therefore, of the origin of the Etrus cans, and the date and place of their arrival in Italy, archaeology is ready with a clear answer. They came from some part of Asia Minor, whether or not it was Lydia, as Herodotus asserts, is im material. Their original home must be sought somewhere between the Hellespont and Syria. In its broad lines the tradition given by Herodotus is borne out by archaeological research.
The Etruscan nation was very loosely compacted, even in the days of its greatest power. It always retained the character of an aggregate of clans, probably resulting from the circumstances of the conquest by small isolated bands. Though these clans re frained from internecine war, they were quite unwilling to band together for any common cause except under the stress of some extraordinary emergency. Except in Macaulay's Lays, it may be doubted if Etruria ever acted as a whole. Each city seems to have considered itself free to conduct its own policy, and to make war or peace with little or no consideration for the interests of the rest. Thus history records few more pathetic instances of political blindness than the apathy of the great Etrurian cities in the long wars between Veii and Rome, which allowed the Romans, though actually the weaker, to swallow all Etruria piecemeal. A confederacy of I2 cities existed in the 6th century, which held its annual meetings at the shrine of Voltumna above the Lacus Volsiniensis (Lake of Bolsena). It is not necessary, however, to follow Livy in representing these meetings as something like a conference of premiers. Judging from the smallness of the re sults, it seems more likely that the confederation confined itself principally to affairs of religion. No complete list exists of the i 2 members in early days, the pedestal of the statue of Claudius is too late in date to be good authority, even if complete.
From partial references, however, in Livy, Dionysius and Diodorus, it is possible to make up a list which, eked out by the names given on this pedestal, would include Vetulonia, Tarquinii, Vulci, Caere, Volaterrae (Volterra), Clusium (Chiusi), Arre tium (Arezzo), Rusellae, Cortona, Perusia (Perugia), Populonia, to which must undoubtedly be added Veii.
Of several of the most ancient and important cities in this list a good deal is known as the result of excavation. Vetulonia, Tar quinii and Caere have been extensively explored; valuable though limited excavations have been made at Vulci; Populonia is periodically examined as often as the removal of the refuse of smelting lays bare an area of ancient tombs; Chiusi has much to teach, even though its riches have been wantonly plundered and scattered ; Volterra has preserved its late walls and numbers of late sarcophagi ; Arezzo, Perugia and Cortona are each cele brated for individual works of art found sporadically. Only Rusellae is a quite virgin site awaiting the spade of the explorer. Vetulonia.—Here was one of the earliest, if not the very earliest, of the settlements made by the Etruscans when they landed on the west coast of Italy, and here it has been possible to trace their graves from the very first generation. The com manding site on the hill of Vetulonia had previously been occupied for a long period by the native Italians, and by the unbroken consecutive sequence of the cemeteries it is possible to detect the precise moment when the new foreign influence appears. Native Italian burials begin on this site at a stage which, at Bologna, is well known as the very opening of the Villanovan period, and continue through the whole of the First and Second Benacci stages. Towards the end of the Second Benacci at Vetulonia new types of tombs begin to appear, together with whole series of foreign imports previously unknown, such as gold, silver, amber and Egyptian scarabs. This is the moment of the first effective colonization by the Etruscans. On the Bolognese analogy the date should be very near 800 B.C.
The Etruscan tombs at Vetulonia continue through the 8th century and down to the middle of the 7th; after which they disappear, at any rate in the area which has hitherto been ex plored. The picture which is given is therefore a complete picture of the life of the invaders for a little over ioo years after their first settlement. It may be studied in all its details in the very rich collection in the museum at Florence. This material shows a certain seriation, a progress from simpler to more complicated designs and technique, especially in the gold-work, which exhibits all the steps in the development of a local school. The finest tombs belong to the latter half of the 8th and, perhaps, the be ginning of the 7th century, especially the Tomba del Duce, which is particularly valuable for the many points of similarity between its contents and those of the Regolini-Gulassi and similar tombs at Caere and Praeneste ; of the bronze-work the finest examples are bronze cauldrons, resembling those dedicated at Olympia ; the best jewellery is from the Lictor's tomb, Le Migliarine and La Pietrera. A bucchero pottery cup from the Tomba del Duce bears an Etruscan inscription of 46 letters, almost, if not quite, the earliest epigraphical document in the language. A silver cup from the same tomb, as well as the silver casing of the ossuary, were finely ornamented with oriental designs.
Caere.—This town is famous for the Regolini-Galassi tomb found there nearly a century ago, the contents of which form the most valuable part of the small Vatican museum of Etruscan antiquities. The principal cemetery, however, lies on the other side of the ancient town at the place known as Banditaccia. Most of the great tumuli have long been known and are well described in Dennis. They contain usually two or three gallery tombs apiece, of which the most important have been named from their most striking features as the tombs "Dei Pilostri," "Del Triclinic," "Dei Tarquinii" and "Dei Sarcofagi." A large mausoleum of this kind was used for a long period, so that the dates range from the beginning of the 7th down to the middle of the 4th century B.C. The character of the great vases and tomb-furniture is best illustrated in the Campana collection in the Louvre, which was principally formed from the pillage of such tombs as these. In ternally, the structure of a gallery tomb reproduces the features of the contemporary house, varying in the number and arrange ment of its rooms, but imitating the architectural details of the wooden beams by carving the soft tufo rock.
Since Dennis wrote his account the general appearance of Banditaccia, as Canina names it, has been very much changed by recent excavations, the results of which remain unpublished. With its carefully laid out streets and quarters allocated to each class of burial it now suggests a Pompeii of the dead. The numerous antiquities found in these later excavations are ex hibited in the Museo di Villa Giulia at Rome. The Regolini Galassi is probably the best known of a group of four tombs, of which the others were found respectively at Praeneste and at Cumae. All four belong precisely to the same generation and contain objects of identical or very similar character. The Rego lini-Galassi tomb has no architectural interest. It is merely a narrow passage divided by a partition into two chambers, with a recess on each side of the fore chamber. The passage is roofed by overlapping blocks, without any attempt to apply the principle of the arch, which seems to have been still unknown. No in formation has been preserved as to the style of the building in the two Praeneste tombs, known respectively as the Barberini and the Bernardini. In the fore chamber at Caere there was buried a warrior, laid on a bed of bronze, which was perfectly preserved. In the chamber behind this were all the ornaments and jewellery of a woman, whose body had fallen into dust but whose bridal trousseau lay in place precisely as she had worn it. On the low wall between the two chambers stood great bronze cauldrons ; along the roof had been nailed bowls and dishes of silver and bronze, and on the walls around the warrior had been nailed bronze shields and bundles of arrows. Near him stood a four-wheeled chariot, and in the right hand niche was a two wheeled chariot. An inventory of the contents of the Regolini Galassi tomb would occupy many pages. The gold-work alone would stock a large jeweller's shop; it includes huge fibulae, bracelets, plaques and chains, executed principally in the technique either of granulation or of filigree. There are silver cups, silver jugs and engraved silver bowls.
More of these bowls were found in the Bernardini and Bar berini tombs, in which also there were a number of carved ivories. All these belong to a well-marked school of oriental work, the centre of which seems to have been in or near Cyprus. Bowls with precisely similar scenes of oriental date and mythology have been unearthed on several sites in Cyprus, indeed the Cesnola collection of Cypriote antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of New York contains one which must have been actually made by the same hand as a bowl from the Bernardini tomb. In the less known Artiaco tomb of Cumae were bronze basins, a silver ossuary, and gold ornaments of which some are almost precise duplicates of those in the Regolini-Galassi. The sporadic occur rence of an Etruscan burial so far south is curious and enigmatic.
This group of four tombs, so rich that their contents are suf ficient to characterize the work and civilization of an entire period, must be placed in the 7th century; the question is to what point in the century they should be assigned. The tendency of more recent examination is to bring these nearer to 70o B.C., per haps precisely 6 7 0 B.C., which makes the approximation of types to Vetulonia more consistent and intelligible.
Tarquinii.—This site, now known as Corneto, shares with Vetulonia the claim to be the earliest of all the settlements. It derives its name from the family of Tarquin, or in its native form Tarchon, so well known in the legendary history of early Rome. Excavations on this site have revealed four extensive cemeteries of the pre-Etruscan Villanovans, beginning in the First Benacci period and coming down to a stage which overlaps, as at Vetulonia, the Etruscan occupation. An exact synchronism between the latest Villanovan at Corneto and the earliest Etruscan at Vetu lonia is furnished by silver filigree bracelets of identical pattern found on both sites. This corroborates the sequence dating estab lished for the arrival of the Etruscans, whose effective occupation of their earliest posts must fall in the middle of the Second Ber nacci period. It is a dating which tallies with the end of the gth or beginning of the 8th century, to which we are also driven by internal criticism of the pottery, gold-work and other contents of the Etruscan graves themselves.
Two tombs at Corneto are of great importance for chronological dating, viz., the Warrior's tomb and the Bocchoris tomb. The former contains a fine set of bronze vessels and gold ornaments which closely resemble examples found in the great circle-graves at Vetulonia, as well as an interesting set of geometric pottery. The Warrior's tomb is certainly not later than the 8th century, but some critics would place it at 800 B.C., or even earlier, while others bring it down almost to 700 B.C. Far more closely dated than the Warrior's tomb is one which is named the Bocchoris tomb, from a vase of Egyptian faience inscribed with the name of Bokenranf, known to Greek writers as Bocchoris, who reigned in Egypt for only six years (734-728 B•c.) • Genuinely Egyptian objects are extraordinarily rare in Italy, and a vase so closely dated by an inscription is absolutely unique. As the Egyptian vase fixes the date of the tomb to within a generation, it is im portant to note a piece in the Regolini-Galassi, which is a distinct argument in favour of bringing the date of the whole Regolini Galassi group up to almost 70o B.C.
The very important frescoed tombs of Corneto are dealt with below in the paragraph on painting.
Vulci.—The remains of the cemeteries of this important city are very extensive, but in spite of the wholesale pillaging of tombs in the middle of the 19th century, only a small amount of scien tific work has been done there. The results of Gsell's excavations, unfortunately limited to a small proportion of the whole area, have not yet found their way into a public museum, though pub lished in a carefully written volume. Dennis gives an admirable account of the site, to which there is little more to add except the information given by Gsell. Pillage from Vulci has found its way sporadically into several museums, especially outside Italy. The Campana collection of the Louvre contains a certain amount of material, but the best individual group which has been pre served is the Polledrara tomb, sometimes known by the ridiculous nickname of the Grotto of Isis, now in the British Museum. This is remarkable for its Egyptian objects, carved ostrich-eggs, faience bottles and a scarab of Psammetichus I. As this king reigned from 663 to 6o9 B.c., the scarab gives only an approximate dating. The pottery, however, is of a very closely differentiated class which assigns the Polledrara tomb quite definitely to within a few years of 600 B.C. All the bronze work in it has the finesse and delicacy of a distinctly later stage than the Regolini-Galassi. The cemeteries at Vulci covered an immense area and comprised a great variety of tomb-forms of all dates. Tumuli, of which the so-called Cucumella is the best example, large chambers such as the Francois tomb and the Campanari, and plain trench graves have produced a quantity of archaeological material, especially pottery, which is now scattered in many places.
Clusium (Chiusi).—This is one of the most individual and peculiar of all the Etruscan cities in respect of its art and cus toms. Probably this may be explained by the long survival of a native tradition which showed extraordinary tenacity. Chiusi was not fully Etruscanized in feeling until well on in the 7th cen tury. It is peculiar in retaining the custom of cremation as its sole burial rite, a habit which gave rise to the curious art of its so-called canopies, ossuaries of pottery moulded in the semblance of human masks which, though often grotesque, sometimes arrive at a considerable degree of realism in portraiture. This was the genesis of a school of sculpture and modelling which has never been sufficiently studied. At Palermo is a considerable collection of Chiusan bas-relief which it is hoped may be eventually trans ferred to Florence. Apart from this the only place in which Chiusan antiquities can be reviewed as a whole is the museum of Florence, though isolated specimens from this region, which was pitilessly sacked all through the r gth century, may be found in many European collections, and the local museum at Chiusi itself contains some very fine examples. At Florence the finest tomb groups are those of Poggio alla Sala and Pania, from the latter of which came a magnificently carved ivory situla of the 7th cen tury. An isolated specimen of great interest is also the silver bucket engraved with a procession of foot soldiers and inscribed with the name Plicasnas, which forms a link with the art of southern Etruria. Chiusi was the centre of the finest production of the black pottery known as Etruscan bucchero.
In the latter half of the 7th century Corinthian influence be gan to be felt in Etruria, and with the beginning of the 6th appear the painted Attic vases. From this moment Greek influence is certainly predominant, and in many branches, especially of the minor arts, Etruscans of the 6th century and afterwards were principally interpreters and imitators of Greek fashions. In the major arts of architecture and sculpture, however, the Etruscans remained to a great extent independent. Temples and houses and tombs were constructed on original plans which were quite un Hellenic, even if some of the external ornament was of ten bor rowed. Above all, in their statuary the Etruscans never lost the original genius which inspired the earliest work of Vulca and continued down to the 3rd century. Many copies of Greek master pieces were executed in Etruscan studios, but side by side with these were such pure products of native inspiration as the Chi maera of Arezzo, the Wolf of the Capitol and the Orator from Lake Trasimene. The statue of the Orator discloses the parentage of Roman portrait-sculpture ; from this it is clear that the Romans derived much of their peculiar gift from their Etruscan inherit ance, or perhaps from actual Etruscan masters living amongst them. The finest extant piece of Etruscan sculpture of the early time is the Apollo of Veii, dating from the last years of the 6th century, but probably by no means the earliest product of a school of which the other works have perished. If it has affinities with Ionian sculpture, it is none the less a perfectly independent creation.
In many Etruscan tombs the walls are covered with frescoes, the finest of which are those at Corneto and in the neighbourhood of Chiusi. With the exception of those in the Grotta Campana at Veii, which are purely decorative and probably belong to the 7th century, none of these paintings is earlier than 600 B.C. Con sequently they are so much affected by Greek style and subjects that their value is a good deal impaired as records of Etruscan civilization. Nevertheless there are a good many scenes from which valuable details may be gleaned as to customs and habits, especially in social life. The favourite scene is a funeral banquet, with all the preparations for it and the procession which pre ceded it. Probably the motive was simply to ensure by magic a repetition of the material pleasures enjoyed in this world. Chariot races, dancing, wrestling, prize-fighting and athletic contests are depicted among the amusements. The style is closely in harmony with the contemporary vase painting of the time, so that in the first half of the 6th century Ionic fashions are dominant, while of ter this Attic vase painting, especially the severe red-figured style of 500 B.C. comes into play. In some tombs of the end of the 5th century Pythagoreanism begins to assert itself and to affect the representation with a mystic and gloomy atmosphere. The most characteristic of the paintings, however, are essentially gay and happy, without the slightest suggestion of melancholy, and with only slight references to the presence of the Genius of death.
It is from the tomb-paintings that the best idea may be ob tained of the games and amusements to which the Etruscans, like the Lydians, were so much addicted. Horse-riding and chariot races were much in vogue ; wrestling and boxing-matches took place on every important occasion. And on every occasion, whether important or not, there was music. The favourite in strument was a double-pipe of the Phrygian kind but a syrinx was also used. The Romans credited the invention of more than one kind of horn or trumpet to the Etruscans, from whom they confessed to have borrowed the lituus and from whom they learned the use of the pipes and the flute.
Religion.—Of the religion it is not possible to make any satisfactory study in the absence of documents. The names of a certain number of deities are known, but little can be said of their functions or attributes. The existence of a celestial triad corresponding to the Roman Jupiter, Juno and Minerva is affirmed by late Roman writers, and the Etruscan equivalents of these names are known to be Tinia, Uni and Menrva. Corre sponding to these there seems to have been a triad of infernal deities, perhaps Mantus, Mania and the equivalent of Demeter. Fufluns was the Etruscan equivalent of Bacchus, Sethlans of Vulcan, Turms of Mercury. Tiv was the deity of the moon, Thesan of the dawn, Catha of the sun. Several of these names, and others more difficult of identification, are given on the bronze laver of Piacenza. Besides these a very important deity was Voltumna, whom the Romans called Vertumnus ; it was at his shrine that the annual meetings of the confederacy took place. In the underworld there were various demons, especially Charun and Tuchulcha.
The influence of Etruscan rite and ceremonial upon the Romans was very wide and deep. Not only did the latter borrow from Vetulonia the insignia of their magistrates, the curule chair and the fasces, the purple toga and the trumpets, but the rites with which they laid out a city were Etruscan and their proces sions and triumphs were on an Etruscan model. The augurs and harospices were Etruscan and as late as the time of the emperor Julian the Etruscan soothsayers formed a part of every Roman army. In every department of their public life the debt of the Romans to their neighbours and sometime rulers is unmistakable.
The Army and Navy. Conquests and Settlements.—Of the Etruscan army some idea may be formed from such repre sentations as those on the situla of the Certosa found at Bo logna. Cavalry must have been important and chariots are found in every large grave. But the foot soldiers were, doubtless, the backbone of the force. These were armed principally with either of two weapons, the spear or the axe, which was sometimes used not only for striking but for throwing. Javelins and arrows are also commonly found in the graves. Shields and helmets were of several designs, some adapted from the Greek, others borrowed from the eastern Alps. Swords, probably rare and much prized, were of various models, derived from Hallstatt and from Greece.
The Etruscan navy was extremely formidable and rendered them the scourge of the western Mediterranean for several cen turies. It enabled them to defeat the Phocaeans, to conquer Corsica and Sardinia, and to hold their own against Carthaginians and Greeks down to 474 B.C., when their defeat at Cumae marked the beginning of a series of disasters from which they never re covered.
The Etruscan power had reached its height about 3o years before this, and it was in the last few years of the 6th century that a new experiment was made in the direction of empire building. Colonies were sent to establish themselves north of the Apennines, to build up a new Etruria which should include the whole basin of the Po and extend to the shores of the Adriatic, but the Gauls swept away this newly annexed region. Livy's words must not be forced into a statement that there was ever an Etruscan empire stretching from the Alps to Messina, but nevertheless it must be recognized that the Etruscans were the creators of more than a third of ancient Italy. The limits of their permanent achievement, the territory in which their work lived on, even when their political power had been destroyed, might be defined by a line drawn from Milan to Chioggia meeting an other line drawn from the mouth of the Po to the mouth of the Tiber. The peoples whom they administered, and by whom they were eventually assimilated, were principally those who have survived into modern days as the Tuscans and the Umbrians.
The Roman conquest of Etruria after centuries of fighting virtually concluded by the series of deadly duels with Veii was completed just before the Punic wars. Numerous Roman colonies were planted throughout the conquered territory, which eventually passed into the Roman empire as the 7th division of the adminis tration devised by Augustus.
(D. R.-M.)