Home > Etruscan civilization
The Etruscan civilization existed in Etruria and the Po valley in the northern part of what is now Italy, prior to the formation of the Roman Republic.The Etruscans were a non- Indo-European people who inhabited northern and central Italy before 800 BC. Herodotus (ca 400 BC) records the legend that they came from Lydia (modern western Turkey). Countrary, Dionysius of Halicarnassus (ca 100 BC) pronounced that the Etruscans were indigenous to Italy, calling themself Rasenna and being part of an ancient nation "which does not resemble any other people in their language or in their way of life, or customs."
Some researchers have proposed that the non-Greek inscriptions found on the island of Lemnos, appearing to be related of the Etruscan language and dated to the sixth century BC, supports Herodotus hypothesis.
During the 700s BC, the Etruscans developed into a series of autonomous city-states: Arretium ( Arezzo), Caisra (Caere or modern Cerveteri ), Clevsin (Clusium or modern Chiusi ), Curtun (modern Cortona), Perusna ( Perugia), Fufluna or Pupluna (Populonia), Veii, Tarchna (Tarquinii or modern Tarquinia-Corneto ), Vetluna (Vetulonia), Felathri (Volaterrae or modern VolterraVolterra is a town in the Tuscany region, Italy. The town has a history which dates back to the Etruscan Period. External link Towns of Tuscany.), Velzna (Volsinii or modern day Bolsena ), and Velch (Vulci or modern day Volci ). In the valley of the Po, where the Celts effaced their traces, stood the Etruscan cities that are now modern MantuaMantua (in Italian Mantova is a city in Lombardy, Italy and capital of the province with the same name. Located at 45. Area of the commune: 63. km Population of the commune: 47,790 (2001 census); 53,065 (1991 census) History The town was founded presumabl and BolognaBologna (from Latin Bononia Bulaggna in the local dialect) is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy, between the Po River and the Apennines. History Bologna was founded by the Etruscans with the name Felsina''. Next the city was the Roman c, as well as the lost cities of AtriaAtria is an alternative spelling for the Etruscan city that is now Adria in the Veneto region of Northern Italy. Atria is the plural of Atrium. Disambiguation. in Veneto and the recently-rediscovered SpinaThe site of Spina the Etruscan port city on the Adriatic, at the ancient mouth of the Po south of the lagoon where Venice would one day rise, was lost until modern times, when drainage schemes in the delta of the Po in 1922 first officially revealed a nec (see link), south of the lagoon where Venice would rise. Etruscan influence also developed far to the north and south. The Romans were under Etruscan power in the infancy of their own culture, and after they became independent always regarded the Etruscans with the half sneering condescension, half horrified fascination with which former subject peoples usually view their erstwhile masters (this is an important point, for it lies at the heart of the very ambivalent Roman attitude towards Monarchies vs. Republics).
Knowledge about the Etruscans is fragmentary, and usually filtered through Roman eyes; knowledge of the Etruscan language only began with the discovery of the bilingual PhoenicianPhoenician can mean: The Phoenician ancient civilization The Phoenician alphabet The Phoenician languages.-Etruscan Pyrgi TabletsThe Pyrgi Tablets found in an excavation of a sanctuary of that town in Italy, a port of the southern Etruscan town of Caere, are three golden leaves that record a dedication made around 500 BC by Thefarie Velianas, king of Caere, to the Phoenician goddes found at the port of Caere in 1964Events January January 1 Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. January 3 Senator Barry Goldwater announces that he will seek the Republican nomination for President. January 5 In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Ort, and is still incomplete. It is known that they normally acknowledged one among their number as High King. By the 5th century BC they were under increasing pressure from turbulent Italics on the one hand, and ferocious Celts on the other, and by the 3rd century BC they had fallen under the authority of Rome (the last Etruscan city to be subdued by Rome was Velzna, 265 BC). In 90 BC they were granted Roman citizenship, but they backed Marius a decade later, and as a result their language was suppressed and their distinct culture and folkways outlawed. A century later, the future Emperor Claudius could find enough elderly rustics remaining to compile an Etruscan dictionary (now lost), but they vanished as a distinct ethnic group soon after. Nevertheless, a large number of old Roman families retained a memory of Etruscan roots, for example the Sempronii , Licinii , Minucii , and Larcii . Then too, a number of the older Roman divinities turn out to be based closely on Etruscan originals.
Some Etruscan rulers :
- Osiniu (at Clusium) probably early 1100s
- Mezentius fl. c.1100 ?
- Lausus (at Caere)
- Tyrsenos
- Velsu fl 8th century
- Larthia (at Caere)
- Arimnestos (at Arimnus)
- Lars Porsena (at Clusium) fl. late 6th century
- Thefarie Velianas (at Caere) late 500s-early 400s
- Aruns (at Clusium) fl c.500
- Volumnius (at Veii) mid 400s-437
- Lars Tolumnius (at Veii) late 400s-428
