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140-525: The name of Vicus Tuscus is believed to have originated from Etruscan immigration to Rome. Two distinct historical events are said by ancient authors to have led to the name. Tacitus says the name arose from the Etruscans who had come to aid the Romans against Titus Tatius , a Sabine ruler who invaded Rome in around 750 BC after Romans abducted Sabine women , and later settled down in the neighborhood of

280-571: A Mediterranean language", a hypothesis that goes back to an article by Paul Kretschmer in Glotta from 1934. Literary and historical texts in the Etruscan language have not survived, and the language itself is only partially understood by modern scholars. This makes modern understanding of their society and culture heavily dependent on much later and generally disapproving Roman and Greek sources. These ancient writers differed in their theories about

420-497: A common religion. Political unity in Etruscan society was the city-state, which was probably the referent of methlum , "district". Etruscan texts name quite a number of magistrates , without much of a hint as to their function: The camthi , the parnich , the purth , the tamera , the macstrev , and so on. The people were the mech . The princely tombs were not of individuals. The inscription evidence shows that families were interred there over long periods, marking

560-456: A conditional surrender, being allowed to leave without weapons and only one garment apiece. Meeting the exiled Sutrines that same day, Camillus ordered the baggage left behind and marched his now unencumbered army to Sutrium where he found the enemy still dispersed and busy plundering the city. Camillus ordered all the gates closed and attacked before the Etruscans could concentrate their forces. The now trapped Etruscans at first intended to fight to

700-542: A continuity of culture from the last phase of the Bronze Age (13th–11th century BC) to the Iron Age (10th–9th century BC). This is evidence that the Etruscan civilization, which emerged around 900 BC, was built by people whose ancestors had inhabited that region for at least the previous 200 years. Based on this cultural continuity, there is now a consensus among archeologists that Proto-Etruscan culture developed, during

840-464: A group of Roman virgins. Porsena demanded she be returned, and the Romans consented. Upon her return, however, Porsena, being impressed by her bravery, allowed her to choose half the remaining hostages to be freed. She selected from among the hostages the young Roman boys to be freed. The Romans honoured Cloelia with the unusual honour of a statue at the top of the Via Sacra , showing Cloelia mounted on

980-405: A horse—that is, as an eques . Livy recounts that during his own time, public auctions of goods at Rome were by tradition referred to as "selling the goods of king Porsena" , and that this somehow relates to the war with Clusium. Livy concludes most likely it is because, when Porsena departed Rome, he left behind as a gift for the Romans his stores of provisions. Livy also records that, after

1120-595: A language with strong structural resemblances to the language of the Etruscans. The discovery of these inscriptions in modern times has led to the suggestion of a " Tyrrhenian language group " comprising Etruscan, Lemnian, and the Raetic spoken in the Alps . However, the 1st-century BC historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus , a Greek living in Rome, dismissed many of the ancient theories of other Greek historians and postulated that

1260-567: A leader was chosen to represent the league. There were two other Etruscan leagues (" Lega dei popoli "): that of Campania , the main city of which was Capua , and the Po Valley city-states in northern Italy, which included Bologna , Spina and Adria . Those who subscribe to a Latin foundation of Rome followed by an Etruscan invasion typically speak of an Etruscan "influence" on Roman culture – that is, cultural objects which were adopted by Rome from neighboring Etruria. The prevailing view

1400-504: A means of acquiring valuable resources, such as land, prestige, goods, and slaves. It is likely that individuals taken in battle would be ransomed back to their families and clans at high cost. Prisoners could also potentially be sacrificed on tombs to honor fallen leaders of Etruscan society, not unlike the sacrifices made by Achilles for Patrocles . The range of Etruscan civilization is marked by its cities . They were entirely assimilated by Italic, Celtic , or Roman ethnic groups, but

1540-425: A monogamous society that emphasized pairing. Similarly, the behavior of some wealthy women is not uniquely Etruscan. The apparent promiscuous revelry has a spiritual explanation. Swaddling and Bonfante (among others) explain that depictions of the nude embrace, or symplegma, "had the power to ward off evil", as did baring the breast, which was adopted by western culture as an apotropaic device , appearing finally on

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1680-743: A residential area of wealthy families; by the Republican time, the Vicus Tuscus became a hub of Roman commerce where there were many stores ( horrea ) on both sides, such as booksellers. According to Horace's Epistles, books were on sale in front of the statues of Etruscan god Vertumnus and Janus Geminus in the Tuscan street and inside the Forum. The most influential merchants were expert dealers of incense and perfume ( turarii in Latin), giving rise to

1820-501: A stem from the Etruscan Rasna (𐌛𐌀𐌔𐌍𐌀), the people. Evidence of inscriptions as Tular Rasnal (𐌕𐌖𐌋𐌀𐌛 𐌛𐌀𐌔𐌍𐌀𐌋), "boundary of the people", or Mechlum Rasnal (𐌌𐌄𐌙𐌋 𐌛𐌀𐌔𐌍𐌀𐌋). "community of the people", attest to its autonym usage. The Tyrsenian etymology however remains unknown. In Attic Greek , the Etruscans were known as Tyrrhenians ( Τυρρηνοί , Tyrrhēnoi , earlier Τυρσηνοί Tyrsēnoi ), from which

1960-457: A very limited value for a realistic representation of the Etruscan population. It was only from the end of the 4th century BC that evidence of physiognomic portraits began to be found in Etruscan art and Etruscan portraiture became more realistic. There have been numerous biological studies on the Etruscan origins, the oldest of which dates back to the 1950s when research was still based on blood tests of modern samples, and DNA analysis (including

2100-558: A year after the defeat of Veii in the previous war. The consul Publius Valerius Poplicola was assigned the conduct of the war. The Roman army was reinforced by auxiliaries from the Latin allies and the Hernici . The Sabine army was camped outside the walls of Veii. The Roman army attacked the Sabine defences. The Sabines sallied forth from their camp, but the Romans had the better of

2240-481: Is arguably bolstered by the fact that he was the first ancient writer to report the endonym of the Etruscans: Rasenna. The Romans, however, give them other names: from the country they once inhabited, named Etruria, they call them Etruscans, and from their knowledge of the ceremonies relating to divine worship, in which they excel others, they now call them, rather inaccurately, Tusci, but formerly, with

2380-519: Is believed that the Etruscan government style changed from total monarchy to oligarchic republic (as the Roman Republic) in the 6th century BC. The government was viewed as being a central authority, ruling over all tribal and clan organizations. It retained the power of life and death; in fact, the gorgon , an ancient symbol of that power, appears as a motif in Etruscan decoration. The adherents to this state power were united by

2520-538: Is more plausibly traceable to cultural exchange than to migration. Several archaeologists specializing in Prehistory and Protohistory , who have analyzed Bronze Age and Iron Age remains that were excavated in the territory of historical Etruria have pointed out that no evidence has been found, related either to material culture or to social practices , that can support a migration theory. The most marked and radical change that has been archaeologically attested in

2660-443: Is that Rome was founded by Latins who later merged with Etruscans. In this interpretation, Etruscan cultural objects are considered influences rather than part of a heritage. Rome was probably a small settlement until the arrival of the Etruscans, who constructed the first elements of its urban infrastructure such as the drainage system. The main criterion for deciding whether an object originated at Rome and traveled by influence to

2800-473: The Coelian Hill . The trap was successful, and the band of Clusians were killed. The siege continued. Next, with the approval of the senate a Roman youth named Gaius Mucius stealthily entered the Etruscan camp with the intent of assassinating Porsena. However, when Mucius came close to the king, he could not tell the king and his secretary apart, and killed the secretary in error. Mucius was captured by

2940-579: The Etruscan Wars or the Etruscan–Roman Wars , were a series of wars fought between ancient Rome (in both the regal and the republican periods) and the Etruscans . Information about many of the wars is limited, particularly those in the early parts of Rome's history, and in large part is known from ancient texts alone. The conquest of Etruria was completed in 265–264 BC. Based on

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3080-608: The Gauls , and as a result may have lost many – though not all – of its earlier records. Later history relates that some Etruscans lived in the Vicus Tuscus , the "Etruscan quarter", and that there was an Etruscan line of kings (albeit ones descended from a Greek, Demaratus of Corinth ) that succeeded kings of Latin and Sabine origin. Etruscophile historians would argue that this, together with evidence for institutions, religious elements and other cultural elements, proves that Rome

3220-708: The Italian Peninsula . According to the logographer Hellanicus of Lesbos , there was a Pelasgian migration from Thessaly in Greece to the Italian peninsula, as part of which the Pelasgians colonized the area he called Tyrrhenia, and they then came to be called Tyrrhenians. There is some evidence suggesting a link between the island of Lemnos and the Tyrrhenians. The Lemnos Stele bears inscriptions in

3360-651: The Neolithic and the "most likely separation time between Tuscany and Western Anatolia falls around 7,600 years ago", at the time of the migrations of Early European Farmers (EEF) from Anatolia to Europe in the early Neolithic. The ancient Etruscan samples had mitochondrial DNA haplogroups (mtDNA) JT (subclades of J and T ) and U5 , with a minority of mtDNA H1b . An earlier mtDNA study published in 2004, based on about 28 samples of individuals, who lived from 600 to 100 BC, in Veneto , Etruria, and Campania, stated that

3500-482: The Palatine Hill according to Etruscan ritual; that is, they began with a pomerium or sacred ditch. Then, they proceeded to the walls. Romulus was required to kill Remus when the latter jumped over the wall, breaking its magic spell (see also under Pons Sublicius ). The name of Rome is attested in Etruscan in the form Ruma-χ meaning 'Roman', a form that mirrors other attested ethnonyms in that language with

3640-603: The Prehistory , Etruscan age, Roman age , Renaissance , and Present-day, and concluded that the Etruscans appear as a local population, intermediate between the prehistoric and the other samples, placing in the temporal network between the Eneolithic Age and the Roman Age. A couple of mitochondrial DNA studies, published in 2013 in the journals PLOS One and American Journal of Physical Anthropology , based on Etruscan samples from Tuscany and Latium, concluded that

3780-605: The Roman Kingdom became the Roman Republic . Its culture flourished in three confederacies of cities: that of Etruria (Tuscany, Latium and Umbria), that of the Po Valley with the eastern Alps , and that of Campania . The league in northern Italy is mentioned in Livy . The reduction in Etruscan territory was gradual, but after 500 BC, the political balance of power on the Italian peninsula shifted away from

3920-847: The Turks (four haplotypes in common), and the Tuscans (two haplotypes in common). While, the modern populations with the shortest genetic distance from the ancient Etruscans, based solely on mtDNA and FST, were Tuscans followed by the Turks, other populations from the Mediterranean and the Cornish after. This study was much criticized by other geneticists, because "data represent severely damaged or partly contaminated mtDNA sequences" and "any comparison with modern population data must be considered quite hazardous", and archaeologists, who argued that

4060-801: The forum Boarium , to arrive at the Temple of Juno Regina on the Aventine Hill . During the Ludi Romani , the Vicus Tuscus was a route for processions. Statues of gods on wagons were paraded through here from the Capitoline Hill to the Circus Maximus. Plautus also tells us ( Curculio , IV 482) that around 193 BCE, this was the spot for male prostitution in Rome. Etruscan civilization The Etruscan civilization ( / ɪ ˈ t r ʌ s k ən / ih- TRUS -kən )

4200-570: The salt beds at the Tiber's mouth) and trade routes in the area, including the river itself for navigation. Usually, conflicts began with small-scale Etruscan raiding of the Roman countryside, and often ended in sieges of cities on either side. There is also disagreement about when the Etruscan–Roman Wars ended, with Kohn (2013) pointing to the sack of Volsinii in 264 BC. Brice (2014) argued

4340-407: The "Pelasgians", and even then, some did so in a way that suggests they were meant only as generic, descriptive labels for "non-Greek" and "indigenous ancestors of Greeks", respectively. The 5th-century BC historians Herodotus , and Thucydides and the 1st-century BC historian Strabo , did seem to suggest that the Tyrrhenians were originally Pelasgians who migrated to Italy from Lydia by way of

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4480-539: The (Alpine) Noricans are the Raeti and Vindelici . All are divided into a number of states. The Raeti are believed to be people of Tuscan race driven out by the Gauls , their leader was named Raetus. The question of the origins of the Etruscans has long been a subject of interest and debate among historians. In modern times, all the evidence gathered so far by prehistoric and protohistoric archaeologists, anthropologists, and etruscologists points to an autochthonous origin of

4620-561: The 3rd century BC. According to legend, there was a period between 600 BC and 500 BC in which an alliance was formed among twelve Etruscan settlements, known today as the Etruscan League , Etruscan Federation , or Dodecapolis ( ‹See Tfd› Greek : Δωδεκάπολις ). According to a legend, the Etruscan League of twelve cities was founded by Tarchon and his brother Tyrrhenus . Tarchon lent his name to

4760-560: The Alban army had moved pursuant to his orders. The Fidenates, who being Roman colonists understood Latin, heard what Tullus said about the Albans and feared the Alban army would charge down upon them from the rear: accordingly they fled the battle. The Romans then routed the Veientes. In the 6th century BC, according to Livy , Rome's sixth king Servius Tullius went to war with Veii (after

4900-719: The Eastern Mediterranean or Anatolia" and "there are indications that the evidence of DNA can support the theory that Etruscan people are autochthonous in central Italy". In his 2021 book, A Short History of Humanity , German geneticist Johannes Krause , co-director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Jena , concludes that it is likely that the Etruscan language (as well as Basque , Paleo-Sardinian , and Minoan ) "developed on

5040-537: The Etruscan individuals the ancestral component Steppe was present in the same percentages found in the previously analyzed Iron Age Latins, and in the Etruscan DNA was completely absent a signal of recent admixture with Anatolia and the Eastern Mediterranean. Both Etruscans and Latins joined firmly the European cluster, west of modern Italians. The Etruscans were a mixture of WHG, EEF, and Steppe ancestry; 75% of

5180-513: The Etruscan league at the temple of Voltumna. The league still existed during the Roman Empire when it met near Volsinii ; this might have been the meeting place during the 4th century as well. However, modern historians consider the Etruscan league to have been a purely religious organization dedicated to celebrate common Etruscan festivals, it was never a military alliance. Rather, the Roman annalistic records and other sources seem to describe

5320-439: The Etruscan male individuals were found to belong to haplogroup R1b (R1b M269) , especially its clade R1b-P312 and its derivative R1b-L2 , whose direct ancestor is R1b-U152 , while the most common mitochondrial DNA haplogroup among the Etruscans was H . The conclusions of the 2021 study are in line with a 2019 study previously published in the journal Science that analyzed the remains of eleven Iron Age individuals from

5460-533: The Etruscan political system, authority resided in its individual small cities, and probably in its prominent individual families. At the height of Etruscan power, elite Etruscan families grew very rich through trade with the Celts to the north and the Greeks to the south, and they filled their large family tombs with imported luxuries. According to Dionysius the Etruscans called themselves Rasenna (Greek Ῥασέννα),

5600-534: The Etruscans attacked the border strongholds of Nepete and Sutrium. However, Camillus soon defeated the Volscians; meanwhile, a second army was raised at Rome. Camillus and his colleague P. Valerius Potitus Poplicola received command of this second army and the war against the Etruscans. By the time Camillus and Valerius arrived at Sutrium, the Etruscans had taken half the city, the Sutrines desperately defending

5740-531: The Etruscans had no significant heterogeneity, and that all mitochondrial lineages observed among the Etruscan samples appear typically European or West Asian , but only a few haplotypes were shared with modern populations. Allele sharing between the Etruscans and modern populations is highest among Germans (seven haplotypes in common), the Cornish from the South West of Britain (five haplotypes in common),

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5880-728: The Etruscans in favor of the rising Roman Republic . The earliest known examples of Etruscan writing are inscriptions found in southern Etruria that date to around 700 BC. The Etruscans developed a system of writing derived from the Euboean alphabet , which was used in the Magna Graecia (coastal areas located in Southern Italy ). The Etruscan language remains only partly understood, making modern understanding of their society and culture heavily dependent on much later and generally disapproving Roman and Greek sources. In

6020-487: The Etruscans to ally themselves with Carthage , whose interests also collided with the Greeks. Around 540 BC, the Battle of Alalia led to a new distribution of power in the western Mediterranean. Though the battle had no clear winner, Carthage managed to expand its sphere of influence at the expense of the Greeks, and Etruria saw itself relegated to the northern Tyrrhenian Sea with full ownership of Corsica . From

6160-559: The Etruscans were an indigenous population, showing that Etruscan mtDNA appears to fall very close to a Neolithic population from Central Europe ( Germany , Austria , Hungary ) and to other Tuscan populations, strongly suggesting that the Etruscan civilization developed locally from the Villanovan culture , as already supported by archaeological evidence and anthropological research, and that genetic links between Tuscany and western Anatolia date back to at least 5,000 years ago during

6300-509: The Etruscans were indigenous people who had always lived in Etruria and were different from both the Pelasgians and the Lydians. Dionysius noted that the 5th-century historian Xanthus of Lydia , who was originally from Sardis and was regarded as an important source and authority for the history of Lydia, never suggested a Lydian origin of the Etruscans and never named Tyrrhenus as a ruler of

6440-418: The Etruscans, and brought before Porsena. He openly declared his identity and what had been his intent. He threatened that he was but merely the first of three hundred Roman youths who would attempt such a deed. To demonstrate the determination of the Romans, Mucius thrust his right hand into one of the Etruscan camp fires, thereby earning for himself and his descendants the cognomen Scaevola ("Lefty"). Mucius

6580-407: The Etruscans, or descended to the Romans from the Etruscans, is date. Many, if not most, of the Etruscan cities were older than Rome. If one finds that a given feature was there first, it cannot have originated at Rome. A second criterion is the opinion of the ancient sources. These would indicate that certain institutions and customs came directly from the Etruscans. Rome is located on the edge of what

6720-502: The Etruscans. There is no archaeological or linguistic evidence of a migration of the Lydians or Pelasgians into Etruria. Modern etruscologists and archeologists, such as Massimo Pallottino (1947), have shown that early historians' assumptions and assertions on the subject were groundless. In 2000, the etruscologist Dominique Briquel explained in detail why he believes that ancient Greek narratives on Etruscan origins should not even count as historical documents. He argues that

6860-488: The Etruscans. On the Roman side, the members of the gens Fabia featured prominently, and it became almost a personal struggle by that family against Veii. Rome was successful in the war. Livy suggests that in the first year of the war the Romans paid little attention to it, as their own strength was more than sufficient, and they were distracted by internal matters. However the Veientine army entered Roman territory in

7000-512: The Fidenates sallied out in pursuit and were caught in the ambush. Romulus' troops wheeled, drove the Fidenates through their gates so closely that they were not able to close them, and took the town. The Veientes were concerned at the situation with Fidenae both because of its proximity to Veii and their consanguinuity with the Fidenates (who were also Etruscan), and accordingly launched an incursion into Roman territory. After having done so,

7140-407: The Fidenates, formed up battle lines next to the river, the Veientes closest to the river and the Fidenates nearest the mountains. The Roman-Alban army formed up facing them, the Romans towards the Veientes and the Albans towards the Fidenates. The battle commenced. However, Mettius and the Alban troops headed slowly towards the mountains, intending to desert. Tullus exhorted his troops, telling them

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7280-469: The Gauls), enough was left for three golden bowls inscribed with the name of Camillus and placed in the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus before the feet of the statue of Juno . Livy is our only written source for the subsequent years. He writes that in 388 a Roman army invaded the territory of Tarquinii where the towns of Cortuosa and Contenebra were captured. The former was taken by surprise and fell at

7420-499: The Greek island of Lemnos . They all described Lemnos as having been settled by Pelasgians, whom Thucydides identified as "belonging to the Tyrrhenians" ( τὸ δὲ πλεῖστον Πελασγικόν, τῶν καὶ Λῆμνόν ποτε καὶ Ἀθήνας Τυρσηνῶν ). As Strabo and Herodotus told it, the migration to Lemnos was led by Tyrrhenus / Tyrsenos, the son of Atys (who was king of Lydia). Strabo added that the Pelasgians of Lemnos and Imbros then followed Tyrrhenus to

7560-441: The Greeks and the Eastern Mediterranean and not to mass migrations. The facial features (the profile, almond-shaped eyes, large nose) in the frescoes and sculptures, and the depiction of reddish-brown men and light-skinned women, influenced by archaic Greek art, followed the artistic traditions from the Eastern Mediterranean, that had spread even among the Greeks themselves, and to a lesser extent also to other several civilizations in

7700-479: The Latins. The 7th-century BC Homeric Hymn to Dionysus referred to them as pirates. Unlike later Greek authors, these authors did not suggest that Etruscans had migrated to Italy from the east, and did not associate them with the Pelasgians. It was only in the 5th century BC, when the Etruscan civilization had been established for several centuries, that Greek writers started associating the name "Tyrrhenians" with

7840-422: The Lydians. For this reason, therefore, I am persuaded that the Pelasgians are a different people from the Tyrrhenians. And I do not believe, either, that the Tyrrhenians were a colony of the Lydians; for they do not use the same language as the latter, nor can it be alleged that, though they no longer speak a similar tongue, they still retain some other indications of their mother country. For they neither worship

7980-462: The M314 derived allele also found in a Middle Bronze Age individual from Croatia (1631–1531 BC). While the four samples of mtDNA extracted belonged to haplogroups U5a1 , H , T2b32 , K1a4 . Among the older studies, only based on mitochondrial DNA, a mtDNA study, published in 2018 in the journal American Journal of Physical Anthropology , compared both ancient and modern samples from Tuscany, from

8120-632: The Near East are attested only centuries later, when Etruscan civilization was already flourishing and Etruscan ethnogenesis was well established. The first of these attested contacts relate to the Greek colonies in Southern Italy and Phoenician-Punic colonies in Sardinia , and the consequent orientalizing period . One of the most common mistakes for a long time, even among some scholars of

8260-429: The Roman camp, breaching the defenses of the reserves. However, word of the attack reached the consuls, and Manlius stationed his men around the exits to the camp, surrounding the Etruscans. Desperate to make their escape, the invaders assaulted the consul's position, and after a volley of missiles was repulsed, a final charge overwhelmed Manlius, who was mortally wounded. The Roman troops again began to panic, but one of

8400-584: The Roman conquest of Caere in 273 BC was the effective end of the Wars, though adding that the 241 BC revolt of Falerii was "a last gasp". While Margaret Sankey (2002) dated the Roman–Etruscan Wars from c. 509 to 234 BC, she stated that Hasdrubal 's defeat at the Metaurus Valley in 209 BC ended the long-standing rivalry between the Etruscans and the Romans. In the 8th century BC, during

8540-538: The Roman forum. Livy , on the other hand, says the name came from the remnants of the Clusian army who settled in the area following the War between Clusium and Aricia in 508 BC. Some say the settlement was composed of workers whose task in Rome was to construct the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus . Dionysius indicates that the Roman senate provided Etruscans a place to build houses near Vicus Tuscus. Though originally

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8680-440: The Romans a part of their own territory. In the second war with Fidenae and Veii in the 7th century (see below), Livy describes Fidenae as a Roman colony. It may be that a colony was established there after the defeat by Romulus. In the 7th century BC, during the reign of Rome's third king, Tullus Hostilius , the Fidenates and Veientes again went to war with Rome. According to Livy they were incited to war by Mettius Fufetius ,

8820-513: The Romans accepted. Upon the Veientes giving tribute of grain and money, a truce of forty years was agreed. Manlius was awarded an ovation as a result, which he celebrated on 15 March. In 390 BC a Gaulish warband first defeated the Roman army at the Battle of the Allia and then sacked Rome . The ancient writers report that in 389 the Etruscans, Volsci , and Aequi all raised armies in hope of exploiting this blow to Roman power. According to Livy

8960-455: The Romans derived the names Tyrrhēnī , Tyrrhēnia (Etruria), and Mare Tyrrhēnum ( Tyrrhenian Sea ). The ancient Romans referred to the Etruscans as the Tuscī or Etruscī (singular Tuscus ). Their Roman name is the origin of the terms " Toscana ", which refers to their heartland, and " Etruria ", which can refer to their wider region. The term Tusci is thought by linguists to have been

9100-468: The Romans would never re-admit Tarquinius, and that Porsena should out of respect for the Romans cease requesting Tarquinius' readmittance. Porsena agreed, telling Tarquinius to continue his exile elsewhere than Clusium. Porsena also restored to the Romans their hostages, and also the lands of Veii that had been taken from Rome by treaty. Although the ancient Romans believed the siege was a historical event that had taken place, many modern historians think

9240-484: The Umbrian word for "Etruscan", based on an inscription on an ancient bronze tablet from a nearby region. The inscription contains the phrase turskum ... nomen , literally "the Tuscan name". Based on a knowledge of Umbrian grammar, linguists can infer that the base form of the word turskum is *Tursci, which would, through metathesis and a word-initial epenthesis , be likely to lead to the form, E-trus-ci . As for

9380-401: The Veientes returned to Veii with their booty. Romulus and the Roman army followed and met the Veientes in battle outside the walls of Veii. The Romans were victorious and the Veientes fled into the city. The Romans, not having the strength to take the city by storm, instead laid waste their lands. The Veientes sued for peace, and a one-hundred year treaty was concluded upon the Veientes giving to

9520-531: The Veientes were victorious and all the Fabii killed. Only Quintus Fabius Vibulanus survived because he was too young to go to war and therefore stayed in Rome. Upon hearing of the grave defeat, the Roman senate sent the consul Titus Menenius Lanatus with an army against the Veientes, but the Romans were defeated once again. The Veientes marched on Rome, and occupied the Janiculum . The Roman senate recalled

9660-404: The Veientes. It is unclear whether this was continuing from the Battle of Silva Arsia, or was some fresh dispute. It is also unclear what happened in this dispute. Tarquinius, having failed to regain the throne using his allies of Tarquinii and Veii, next sought the aid of Lars Porsena , king of Clusium in 508 BC. Clusium was at that time a powerful Etruscan city. The Roman senate heard of

9800-488: The Volsci and the Aequi and was now ready to take on the Etruscans. Livy and Plutarch , and more summarily Diodorus Siculus , narrate the fighting between Romans and Etruscans in very similar terms. While Camillus was away campaigning against the Volsci, the Etruscans laid siege to Sutrium , a Roman ally. The Sutrines sent to Rome for aid and Camillus, now victorious against the Volsci and Aequi, marched to their relief, but before any help could arrive they were forced into

9940-582: The analysis of ancient samples) was not yet possible. It is only in very recent years, with the development of archaeogenetics , that comprehensive studies containing the whole genome sequencing of Etruscan samples have been published, including autosomal DNA and Y-DNA , autosomal DNA being the "most valuable to understand what really happened in an individual's history", as stated by geneticist David Reich , whereas previously studies were based only on mitochondrial DNA analysis, which contains less and limited information. An archeogenetic study focusing on

10080-476: The ancient Greek civilization. Etruscan expansion was focused both to the north beyond the Apennine Mountains and into Campania. Some small towns in the sixth century BC disappeared during this time, ostensibly subsumed by greater, more powerful neighbors. However, it is certain that the political structure of the Etruscan culture was similar to, albeit more aristocratic than, Magna Graecia in

10220-430: The ancient story of the Etruscans' 'Lydian origins' was a deliberate, politically motivated fabrication, and that ancient Greeks inferred a connection between the Tyrrhenians and the Pelasgians solely on the basis of certain Greek and local traditions and on the mere fact that there had been trade between the Etruscans and Greeks. He noted that, even if these stories include historical facts suggesting contact, such contact

10360-505: The approach of Porsena's army, and were afraid lest the people of Rome should out of fear let the enemy into the city. Accordingly, the senate took a number of measures to strengthen the resolve of the populace, including purchasing grain from the Volsci and from Cumae , nationalising licences for the sale of salt (which was at the time costly), and exempting the lower classes from taxes and port customs duties. The measures were successful, and

10500-537: The area is the adoption, starting in about the 12th century BC, of the funeral rite of incineration in terracotta urns, which is a Continental European practice, derived from the Urnfield culture ; there is nothing about it that suggests an ethnic contribution from Asia Minor or the Near East . A 2012 survey of the previous 30 years' archaeological findings, based on excavations of the major Etruscan cities, showed

10640-727: The areas around Rome, of which four were Etruscan individuals, one buried in Veio Grotta Gramiccia from the Villanovan era (900-800 BC) and three buried in La Mattonara Necropolis near Civitavecchia from the Orientalizing period (700-600 BC). The study concluded that Etruscans (900–600 BC) and the Latins (900–500 BC) from Latium vetus were genetically similar, with genetic differences between

10780-430: The bridge was almost destroyed. Horatius waited until the bridge had fallen, then swam back across the river under enemy fire. A statue was erected to Horatius in the comitium , along with land at the public expense, and also private awards. As the attack had been unsuccessful, Porsena next determined to blockade the city. He established a garrison on the Janiculum , blocked river transport, and sent raiding parties into

10920-413: The brother of the consul, was slain. Manlius, leading the army's opposite wing, was dangerously wounded and forced to retire from the line. As his men began to fall back in disarray, Marcus Fabius arrived to prevent their slaughter and assure them that their leader was not dead. Manlius was able to appear himself and reassure the soldiers. The Etruscans took advantage of a lull in the fighting to attack

11060-896: The central and western Mediterranean up to the Iberian Peninsula . Actually, many of the tombs of the Late Orientalizing and Archaic periods, such as the Tomb of the Augurs , the Tomb of the Triclinium or the Tomb of the Leopards , as well as other tombs from the archaic period in the Monterozzi necropolis in Tarquinia , were painted by Greek painters or, in any case, foreigner artists. These images have, therefore,

11200-522: The cities of Latium and Campania weakened, and the area was taken over by Romans and Samnites . In the 4th century BC, Etruria saw a Gallic invasion end its influence over the Po Valley and the Adriatic coast . Meanwhile, Rome had started annexing Etruscan cities. This led to the loss of the northern Etruscan provinces. During the Roman–Etruscan Wars , Etruria was conquered by Rome in

11340-507: The city of Tarchna , or Tarquinnii, as it was known by the Romans. Tyrrhenus gave his name to the Tyrrhenians , the alternative name for the Etruscans. Although there is no consensus on which cities were in the league, the following list may be close to the mark: Arretium , Caisra , Clevsin , Curtun , Perusna , Pupluna , Veii , Tarchna , Vetluna , Volterra , Velzna , and Velch . Some modern authors include Rusellae . The league

11480-564: The consul Lucius Aemilius Mamercus came to relieve the siege, and a charge by the Roman cavalry resulted in the retreat of the Veientine army, who withdrew to the Saxa Rubra and sued for peace. In 477 BC hostilities were renewed, and the fighting increased, with incursions by the Fabii into Veientine territory, and vice versa. The Veientes devised an ambush, which led to the Battle of the Cremera , most likely on 18 July 477 BC, in which

11620-484: The continent in the course of the Neolithic Revolution ". The Etruscan civilization begins with the early Iron Age Villanovan culture , regarded as the oldest phase, that occupied a large area of northern and central Italy during the Iron Age. The Etruscans themselves dated the origin of the Etruscan nation to a date corresponding to the 11th or 10th century BC. The Villanovan culture emerges with

11760-414: The depiction of a fasces on the grave stele of Avele Feluske, who is shown as a warrior wielding the fasces. The most telling Etruscan feature is the word populus , which appears as an Etruscan deity, Fufluns . The historical Etruscans had achieved a state system of society, with remnants of the chiefdom and tribal forms. Rome was in a sense the first Italic state, but it began as an Etruscan one. It

11900-564: The dictator of Alba Longa , who had been defeated by and had become in substance a vassal of Rome. The Fidenates openly revolted against Rome. Tullus summoned Mettius and his army from Alba Longa and, together with the Roman army, marched on Fidenae. The Roman and Alban army crossed the Anio and camped near the confluence of the Anio and the Tiber . The army of Veii also crossed the Tiber, and, with

12040-427: The end, but when hearing that their lives would be spared, they surrendered in great numbers. Sutrium was thus captured twice in the same day. Livy provides a description of the amount of spoils taken. Having won three simultaneous wars, Camillus returned to Rome in triumph. The Etruscan prisoners were publicly sold; after the gold owed to Rome's matrons had been repaid (they had contributed their gold to ransom Rome from

12180-488: The events they described." He put the beginning of the Etruscan Wars in 483 BC with the first of three Roman wars with Veii . Similarly, Amanda Grace Self (2016) stated that "Rome's Etruscan Wars were not a simple process of expansion into barbarian-inhabited lands", but a complex series of disparate conflicts across centuries: "The Romans had no notion of a planned, unified war against the Etruscan people. Rather,

12320-554: The examined Etruscans and Latins found to be insignificant. The Etruscan individuals and contemporary Latins were distinguished from preceding populations of Italy by the presence of c.  30% steppe ancestry . Their DNA was a mixture of two-thirds Copper Age ancestry ( EEF + WHG ; Etruscans ~66–72%, Latins ~62–75%), and one-third Steppe-related ancestry (Etruscans ~27–33%, Latins ~24–37%). The only sample of Y-DNA extracted belonged to haplogroup J-M12 (J2b-L283) , found in an individual dated 700-600 BC, and carried exactly

12460-539: The expiry of an earlier truce) and with the rest of the Etruscans. Little is said of the war, except that the king was conspicuous for his valour and good fortune, that he routed a great army of the Etruscans and Veientes, and that the war helped cement his position in Rome, as he had only recently become king. According to the Fasti Triumphales , Servius celebrated three triumphs over the Etruscans, including on 25 November 571 BC and 25 May 567 BC (the date of

12600-513: The fallen consul's officers moved his body and cleared a way for the Etruscans to escape, allowing Fabius to crush them as they fled. Although the battle was a great victory for Fabius, the loss of his brother and his colleague was a severe blow, and he declined the honor of a triumph that had been offered by the Senate . In 479 BC the war with Veii was assigned to the consul Titus Verginius Tricostus Rutilus , while his colleague Kaeso Fabius

12740-429: The fighting, and took the gate of the Sabine camp. The forces of Veii then attacked from the city, but in some disorder, and a Roman cavalry charge routed the Veientes, giving Rome the overall victory. Valerius was awarded a triumph for the victory, which he celebrated on 1 May. In the following year the consul Gnaeus Manlius Vulso was assigned the war, but no fighting occurred, as the Veientes sued for peace, which

12880-523: The figureheads of sailing ships as a nude female upper torso. It is also possible that Greek and Roman attitudes to the Etruscans were based on a misunderstanding of the place of women within their society. In both Greece and the earliest Republican Rome, respectable women were confined to the house and mixed-sex socialising did not occur. Thus, the freedom of women within Etruscan society could have been misunderstood as implying their sexual availability. A number of Etruscan tombs carry funerary inscriptions in

13020-464: The first assault. At Contenebra a small garrison attempted to resist, but after a few days succumbed to superior Roman numbers. In 387 there were rumours in Rome that Etruria was in arms and the Romans once again turned to Camillus who was one of six elected consular tribunes for 386. However, Camillus was diverted by news that the Volscians had invaded the Pomptine territory. With Camillus occupied,

13160-412: The first half of the 5th century BC, the new political situation meant the beginning of the Etruscan decline after losing their southern provinces. In 480 BC, Etruria's ally Carthage was defeated by a coalition of Magna Graecia cities led by Syracuse, Sicily . A few years later, in 474 BC, Syracuse's tyrant Hiero defeated the Etruscans at the Battle of Cumae . Etruria's influence over

13300-571: The following year, 482 BC, and ravaged the countryside. Livy also says that the Veientes threatened to besiege Rome itself in the following year, 481 BC, but that command of the Roman forces was given to the consul Spurius Furius Medullinus and nothing notable occurred in that year. In 480 BC, Rome was rent by internal dissension , which encouraged the Veientes to take the field in the hope of breaking Roman power. They were supported by troops from other Etruscan cities. The consuls, Marcus Fabius Vibulanus and Gnaeus Manlius Cincinnatus , mindful of

13440-536: The form "X son of (father) and (mother)", indicating the importance of the mother's side of the family. The Etruscans, like the contemporary cultures of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome , had a significant military tradition. In addition to marking the rank and power of certain individuals, warfare was a considerable economic advantage to Etruscan civilization. Like many ancient societies, the Etruscans conducted campaigns during summer months, raiding neighboring areas, attempting to gain territory and combating piracy as

13580-493: The golden crown, the sceptre, the toga palmata (a special robe), the sella curulis ( curule chair ), and above all the primary symbol of state power: the fasces . The latter was a bundle of whipping rods surrounding a double-bladed axe , carried by the king's lictors . An example of the fasces are the remains of bronze rods and the axe from a tomb in Etruscan Vetulonia . This allowed archaeologists to identify

13720-433: The growth of the aristocratic family as a fixed institution, parallel to the gens at Rome and perhaps even its model. The Etruscans could have used any model of the eastern Mediterranean. That the growth of this class is related to the new acquisition of wealth through trade is unquestioned. The wealthiest cities were located near the coast. At the center of the society was the married couple, tusurthir . The Etruscans were

13860-550: The introduction, for example, of writing, of a new way of banqueting, of a heroic funerary ideology, that is, a new aristocratic way of life, such as to profoundly change the physiognomy of Etruscan society. Thus, thanks to the growing number of contacts with the Greeks, the Etruscans entered what is called the Orientalizing phase . In this phase, there was a heavy influence in Greece, most of Italy and some areas of Spain, from

14000-515: The last phase of the Bronze Age, from the indigenous Proto-Villanovan culture , and that the subsequent Iron Age Villanovan culture is most accurately described as an early phase of the Etruscan civilization. It is possible that there were contacts between northern-central Italy and the Mycenaean world at the end of the Bronze Age. However contacts between the inhabitants of Etruria and inhabitants of Greece , Aegean Sea Islands, Asia Minor, and

14140-525: The leading men of all of Etruria gathered at the sanctuary of Voltumna to form an alliance against Rome. Beset by dangers on all sides, the Romans appointed Marcus Furius Camillus dictator . Camillus chose to march against the Volsci first, leaving, according to Livy, a force commanded by consular tribune L. Aemilius Mamercinus in the Veientine territory to guard against the Etruscans. In the course of two campaigns Camillus inflicted crushing victories against

14280-440: The military endeavors against the city-states of Etruria were discrete reactions to an array of individual factors and events. The Etruscans themselves never united in a large-scale war against the growing strength of Rome." Rather than a single event, she wrote that the geographic proximity of the Romans and Etruscans as neighbours inhabiting opposite banks of the river Tiber naturally drove them to conflict over resources (such as

14420-490: The mood of the populace turned against the enemy. Porsena and his forces attacked Rome. As his troops were surging towards the Pons Sublicius , one of the bridges over the Tiber leading into the city, Publius Horatius Cocles leapt across the bridge to hold off the enemy, giving the Romans time to destroy the bridge. He was joined by Titus Herminius Aquilinus and Spurius Larcius . Herminius and Larcius retreated as

14560-423: The most advanced areas of the eastern Mediterranean and the ancient Near East . Also directly Phoenician, or otherwise Near Eastern, craftsmen, merchants and artists contributed to the spread in southern Europe of Near Eastern cultural and artistic motifs. The last three phases of Etruscan civilization are called, respectively, Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic, which roughly correspond to the homonymous phases of

14700-602: The name of the Fabii. The following day the Fabii armed themselves and, numbering 306 including the consul, marched through Rome and out of the right side of the Carmental Gate . Heading north, they set up camp at the Cremera and fortified a post. In 478 BC the Fabii successfully ravaged the territory of Veii. The Veientes called up an army of Etruscans, and attacked the Fabian post at the Cremera. A Roman army led by

14840-558: The names survive from inscriptions and their ruins are of aesthetic and historic interest in most of the cities of central Italy. Etruscan cities flourished over most of Italy during the Roman Iron Age , marking the farthest extent of Etruscan civilization. They were gradually assimilated first by Italics in the south, then by Celts in the north and finally in Etruria itself by the growing Roman Republic. Roman%E2%80%93Etruscan Wars The Roman–Etruscan Wars , also known as

14980-535: The origin of the Etruscan people. Some suggested they were Pelasgians who had migrated there from Greece. Others maintained that they were indigenous to central Italy and were not from Greece. The first Greek author to mention the Etruscans, whom the Ancient Greeks called Tyrrhenians , was the 8th-century BC poet Hesiod , in his work, the Theogony . He mentioned them as residing in central Italy alongside

15120-624: The original meaning of the root, *Turs-, a widely cited hypothesis is that it, like the word Latin turris , means "tower", and comes from the ancient Greek word for tower: τύρσις , likely a loan into Greek. On this hypothesis, the Tusci were called the "people who build towers" or "the tower builders". This proposed etymology is made the more plausible because the Etruscans preferred to build their towns on high precipices reinforced by walls. Alternatively, Giuliano and Larissa Bonfante have speculated that Etruscan houses may have seemed like towers to

15260-513: The origins of the Etruscans; however, the consensus among modern scholars is that the Etruscans were an indigenous population. The earliest evidence of a culture that is identifiably Etruscan dates from about 900 BC. This is the period of the Iron Age Villanovan culture , considered to be the earliest phase of Etruscan civilization, which itself developed from the previous late Bronze Age Proto-Villanovan culture in

15400-570: The other consul Gaius Horatius Pulvillus from the Volsci , and there were two indecisive battles against the Veientes, the first near the temple of Spes near the Praenestine Gate , and the second at the Colline gate . Thereafter the Veientes withdrew from Rome and set about ravaging the countryside, until they were defeated by the Romans in the following year. In 475 BC the Veientes and Sabines commenced hostilities against Rome, only

15540-417: The past, has been to associate the later Orientalizing period of Etruscan civilization with the question of its origins. Orientalization was an artistic and cultural phenomenon that spread among the Greeks themselves, and throughout much of the central and western Mediterranean, not only in Etruria. Orientalizing period in the Etruscans was due, as has been amply demonstrated by archeologists, to contacts with

15680-593: The phenomenon of regionalization from the late Bronze Age culture called " Proto-Villanovan ", part of the central European Urnfield culture system . In the last Villanovan phase, called the recent phase (about 770–730 BC), the Etruscans established relations of a certain consistency with the first Greek immigrants in southern Italy (in Pithecusa and then in Cuma ), so much so as to initially absorb techniques and figurative models and soon more properly cultural models, with

15820-461: The question of Etruscan origins was published in September 2021 in the journal Science Advances and analyzed the autosomal DNA and the uniparental markers (Y-DNA and mtDNA) of 48 Iron Age individuals from Tuscany and Lazio , spanning from 800 to 1 BC, and concluding that the Etruscans were autochthonous (locally indigenous), and they had a genetic profile similar to their Latin neighbors. In

15960-465: The reign of Rome's first king, Romulus , the Fidenates (an Etruscan people) decided to suppress Rome as a future threat and began to lay waste to its territory, in opposition to which Romulus marched on Fidenae and camped a mile from it. Setting an ambush in the thickets , he brought the rest of the army to the gates of Fidenae to provoke them into exiting the city. Seeing the appearance of disorder

16100-402: The rest behind street barricades. Camillus divided his army into two and ordered his colleague to attack the walls on the side the enemy was holding. Attacked from both within and without the city, the Etruscans fled in panic and were killed in great numbers. Having recaptured Sutrium, the Roman army marched to Nepete, which by that time had surrendered to the Etruscans after treachery from some of

16240-535: The same accuracy as the Greeks, they called them Thyrscoï [an earlier form of Tusci]. Their own name for themselves, however, is the same as that of one of their leaders, Rasenna. Similarly, the 1st-century BC historian Livy , in his Ab Urbe Condita Libri , said that the Rhaetians were Etruscans who had been driven into the mountains by the invading Gauls; and he asserted that the inhabitants of Raetia were of Etruscan origin. The Alpine tribes have also, no doubt,

16380-468: The same gods as the Lydians nor make use of similar laws or institutions, but in these very respects they differ more from the Lydians than from the Pelasgians. Indeed, those probably come nearest to the truth who declare that the nation migrated from nowhere else, but was native to the country, since it is found to be a very ancient nation and to agree with no other either in its language or in its manner of living. The credibility of Dionysius of Halicarnassus

16520-649: The same origin (of the Etruscans), especially the Raetians; who have been rendered so savage by the very nature of the country as to retain nothing of their ancient character save the sound of their speech, and even that is corrupted. The first-century historian Pliny the Elder also put the Etruscans in the context of the Rhaetian people to the north, and wrote in his Natural History (AD 79): Adjoining these

16660-514: The same region, part of the central European Urnfield culture system. Etruscan civilization dominated Italy until it fell to the expanding Rome beginning in the late 4th century BC as a result of the Roman–Etruscan Wars ; Etruscans were granted Roman citizenship in 90 BC, and only in 27 BC the whole Etruscan territory was incorporated into the newly established Roman Empire . The territorial extent of Etruscan civilization reached its maximum around 500 BC, shortly after

16800-463: The same suffix -χ : Velzna-χ '(someone) from Volsinii' and Sveama-χ '(someone) from Sovana '. This in itself, however, is not enough to prove Etruscan origin conclusively. If Tiberius is from θefarie , then Ruma would have been placed on the Thefar ( Tiber ) river. A heavily discussed topic among scholars is who was the founding population of Rome. In 390 BC, the city of Rome was attacked by

16940-466: The simple Latins. The proposed etymology has a long history, Dionysius of Halicarnassus having observed in the first century B. C., "[T]here is no reason that the Greeks should not have called [the Etruscans] by this name, both from their living in towers and from the name of one of their rulers." In his recent Etymological Dictionary of Greek , Robert Beekes claims the Greek word is a "loanword from

17080-420: The south. The mining and commerce of metal, especially copper and iron , led to an enrichment of the Etruscans and to the expansion of their influence in the Italian peninsula and the western Mediterranean Sea . Here, their interests collided with those of the Greeks, especially in the sixth century BC, when Phocaeans of Italy founded colonies along the coast of Sardinia , Spain and Corsica . This led

17220-549: The street's second name - Vicus Turarius. Propertius recorded that these tradesmen made sacrificial offerings to Vertumnus , whose statue stood on Vicus Tuscus. Vicus Tuscus was frequently used as an important path of communication between the Roman Forum and the Forum Boarium and Circus Maximus . When Romans conducted a sacrificial rite to their gods, two white cows were led through Vicus Tuscus and Velabrum via

17360-568: The study was not clear-cut and had not provided evidence that the Etruscans were an intrusive population to the European context. In the collective volume Etruscology published in 2017, British archeologist Phil Perkins, echoing an earlier article of his from 2009, provides an analysis of the state of DNA studies and writes that "none of the DNA studies to date conclusively prove that [the] Etruscans were an intrusive population in Italy that originated in

17500-488: The support of the cities of Veii and Tarquinii, recalling to the former their regular losses of war and of land to the Roman state, and to the latter his family ties. The armies of the two cities followed Tarquin to battle but were defeated by the Roman army in the Battle of Silva Arsia . The consul Valerius collected the spoils of the routed Etruscans, and returned to Rome to celebrate a triumph on 1 March 509 BC. Livy writes that later in 509 BC Valerius returned to fight

17640-686: The surrounding countryside. During the siege, the consul Valerius baited a group of the Clusian army with a herd of cattle driven out through the Esquiline Gate . Titus Herminius was ordered to lay in wait along the Via Gabina , two miles from Rome. Spurius Larcius was posted with troops inside the Colline Gate ; consul Titus Lucretius Tricipitinus waited with troops at the Naevian Gate ; while Valerius himself led troops down from

17780-508: The third triumph is not legible on the Fasti ). Livy records that during the reign of Servius' successor, Tarquinius Superbus , Rome renewed a treaty with the Etruscans. It is not clear which earlier peace treaty was renewed. In 509 BC the Roman monarchy was overthrown, and the republic commenced with the election of the first consuls . The deposed king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus , whose family originated from Tarquinii in Etruria, garnered

17920-479: The throne be restored to Tarquinius, but the Romans refused. However the Romans did agree to return to the Veientes lands taken from them in previous wars, and Roman hostages were agreed to be given in exchange for the withdrawal from the Janiculum of the Etruscan garrison. The peace was agreed, and hostages taken by Porsena. One of the hostages, a young woman named Cloelia , fled the Etruscan camp, leading away

18060-475: The townsmen. Camillus first attempted to convince the Nepesines to throw out the Etruscans. When they refused, he captured the city by storm. All the Etruscans and those who had sided with them were killed and a Roman garrison put in place. After this victory no further conflict is reported between Romans and Etruscans until 358 when Rome again clashed with Tarquinii. The sources frequently refer to meetings of

18200-468: The traditional narrative of the overthrow of the Roman monarchy in 509 BC, in which the Romans ousted the Etruscan Tarquinii dynasty and established the Roman Republic , some historians put the start of the Roman–Etruscan Wars in c. 509 BC. Other historians such as Brice (2014) emphasise that little about the Etruscan Wars survives in the ancient sources: though "the general course of

18340-447: The undisciplined conduct of the soldiers in the recent past, held their men back from fighting until repeated provocations by the Etruscan cavalry made the start of combat inevitable. Fabius compelled those of the soldiers who were most eager to engage the enemy to swear to return victorious before he would give the order for battle. Once the fight had begun, the Roman commanders fought with great vigor, particularly after Quintus Fabius ,

18480-672: The war was at least partly mythical. In 505–504 BC there was war between republican Rome and the Sabines . Although Livy makes no mention of the involvement of the Etruscans, the Fasti Triumphales record that the consul Publius Valerius Poplicola celebrated a triumph over both the Sabines and the Veientes in May 504 BC. In the years between 483 and 476 BC the Veientes waged a war against Rome, assisted by auxiliaries from among

18620-419: The war" could be discerned, it is impossible to reconstruct a continuous narrative. He argued that the wars occurred so early in Roman history that "extensive elements of the narratives are shrouded in mythology and should be heavily discounted. Livy is our best surviving source for this early period, but he wrote four centuries after the events and drew on sources that were recorded at least two centuries after

18760-435: The war, a number of the Etruscan soldiers returned to Rome to seek shelter following the War between Clusium and Aricia , and that a number of the Etruscans remained in Rome, and were granted an area to live which became known as the Vicus Tuscus . In 507 BC Porsena once again sent ambassadors to the Roman senate, requesting the restoration of Tarquinius to the throne. Legates were sent back to Porsena, to advise him that

18900-413: Was Etruscan territory. When Etruscan settlements turned up south of the border, it was presumed that the Etruscans spread there after the foundation of Rome, but the settlements are now known to have preceded Rome. Etruscan settlements were frequently built on hills – the steeper the better – and surrounded by thick walls. According to Roman mythology , when Romulus and Remus founded Rome, they did so on

19040-488: Was also granted farming land on the right hand back of the Tiber, which later became known as the Mucia Prata (Mucian Meadows). Porsena, shocked at the youth's bravery, dismissed him from the Etruscan camp, free to return to Rome. Most historical sources say the siege ended with a peace treaty. At this point, according to Livy , Porsena sent ambassadors to Rome to offer peace. Terms were negotiated. Porsena requested

19180-512: Was an ancient civilization created by the Etruscans, a people who inhabited Etruria in ancient Italy , with a common language and culture who formed a federation of city-states. After conquering adjacent lands, its territory covered, at its greatest extent, roughly what is now Tuscany , western Umbria , and northern Lazio , as well as what are now the Po Valley , Emilia-Romagna , south-eastern Lombardy , southern Veneto , and western Campania . A large body of literature has flourished on

19320-451: Was dealing with an incursion by the Aequi. Verginius, being too hasty, was almost cut off along with his army, and was only saved when Fabius arrived with his army after dealing with the Aequi. In the same year the Fabii addressed the senate, proposing that their family alone bear the financial and military burden of the war with Veii. The senate agreed, with thanks, and the people extolled

19460-404: Was founded by Etruscans. Under Romulus and Numa Pompilius , the people were said to have been divided into thirty curiae and three tribes . Few Etruscan words entered Latin , but the names of at least two of the tribes – Ramnes and Luceres – seem to be Etruscan. The last kings may have borne the Etruscan title lucumo , while the regalia were traditionally considered of Etruscan origin –

19600-502: Was mostly an economic and religious league, or a loose confederation, similar to the Greek states. During the later imperial times, when Etruria was just one of many regions controlled by Rome, the number of cities in the league increased by three. This is noted on many later grave stones from the 2nd century BC onwards. According to Livy , the twelve city-states met once a year at the Fanum Voltumnae at Volsinii , where

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