ORIGIN \ ND isTOviv. Critics do not agree as to the origin of the Etruscans. One school makes them come by land across the Rhoetian Alps, with their earliest settlement in the north and inland. A second sehool believes them to have come by sea. Iterodotus believed them to be I,ydians. Sane modern writers connect them with the Pelasgians or 1Iittites. They certainly appear to have come from Asia Minor. Their own legends place the beginning of their power in Italy in B.C. 1014. The discoveries in the necropo lises of Etruria would place the rudest of the early tombs at a period only slightly subsequent to this date. For several centuries the tribe remained stationary and retired, probably in the region of Monte Amiata and the Ciminian forest, though there may have been other centres as well. Be tween the eighth and sixth centuries 13.C. the tribe embarked on a career of conquest among the earlier nations of central Italy. The earliest cities to be subdued were those along the sea board, such as Tarquinii and Caere, and only quite late did inland cities like Perusia and Arretium fail into their hands. The Etruscans in many cases appear to have found among the conquered a more advanced civilization, hut their superior organization and vigor made them con querors. They formed probably the governing class, an aristocratic oligarchy. For a time there were three separate Etruscan confederacies, each composed of twelve cities or States. The southern eonfede•aey ( Etruria Campaniana) in cluded Capita and Nola; the northern (Etruria Circumpadana) Felsina, Mantua, Ravenna, and Hadria. The central confederacy alone counts in history as important, and ineluded many more important cities than the necessary twelve: Tar qninii, Core, Veii, Vulei, Volsinii, Falerii, \e pete, Sutrium, Populonia, Russellre, Clusimn, Vetulonia, Volateme, Perusia, Cortona, Arretium were the largest, and the twelve confederates are probably to be found among them, the list varying at different times. Each separate State was governed by magistrates annually elected, with the titles of Lucumo (lauehme), Porsena (Purtevana ), and Marunueh, chosen from the ranks of the hereditary priestly nobles. in times of war a single supreme chief was chosen— like Porsena of Clushim—and his bodyguard con sisted of twelve lietors, one from each city, as symbols of his authority. This is another point of resemblance with the Hittites, whose confeder acy was similarly organized. The laws, both religious and civil, were embodied from early times in a triple series of books (libri, diseiplin(e), the first being the libri haruspieini, treating of divination by sacrifice; the second, the libri roles, on divination by lightning; the third, the libri rituales, of more general import, treating of the founding and consecrating of cities and build ings, of the organization of the people, of the army, and the State in times of peace and war.
Etruria was noted as a hotbed of superstition and profligacy even after her downfall.
The Etruscans are closely connected with the earliest history of Rome, forming one of the three tribes, the latest (Lueeres), and finally reaching supremacy under the Tarquins, when Rome stood at the head of the Etruscan League. After the expulsion of the Tarquins, the Etruscans sought to reestablish them by force under the leadership of the Porsena of Chisium (B.c. 509 ?). At this time the Etruscan cities were great commercial centres: those situated at a little distance from the seaboard had their special ports: Caere had Pyrgi, VetuIonia had Tarquinii had Gravisca.. Their onward march in eompanies was shown by their attack on the Greeks of Cumge in TLC. 523. The keen rivalry for commercial mas tery then pending between the waning Plueld clans and the :reeks led Carthage to seek an alliance with the Etruscans, whose Ileet must have been powerful and in control of local com merce. The terms of this treaty gave Corsipa to the Etrnseans and Sardinia to the Carthagi nians. At this time the inland conquests of the Etruseans were substantially completed. Their first great. defeat came in 474, when Hiero of Syracuse punished them for assisting the Athe nians by praetically annihilating their >,ea power. Between this tune and the final destruction of their independence by Bonn', at the battle of the Vadimonian Lake in n.c. 283, were I wo centuries of steady political decay, marked by their defeat by the Gauls, who overran Etruria Circumpa dana; by the rmbrians, who attacked on the east; by the Sanmites, who subjugated Etruria Campaniana, and by the Romans, whose progres sive stages of conquest were marked by the cap ture of Veii in ts.c. 396 after ten years' siege, and by that of Falerii. But the practical nature of the Etruscans seems to have shown itself by the easy fashion in which they turned their down fall into a further opportunity for a life of ease and luxury without responsibility. But they felt the influence of the far higher civilization of Rome. Certainly up to the time of the Graechi Rome could not compare in magnificence or wealth with any of the greater Etruscan cities.